NHK Fails to Declare 1.3-B.-Yen Tax

Tokyo, May 27 (Jiji Press)–Japan Broadcasting Corp. said Tuesday that it failed to declare 1,332 million yen in consumption tax, mainly on uncollected viewer fees, over the three years to March 2007.

The public broadcaster, known as NHK, said it will pay back taxes and penalties totaling 1,461 million yen.

During the period, NHK faced sharp falls in viewer fee revenue as many people refused to pay such fees due to a series of scandals involving the broadcaster.

The National Tax Agency’s Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau approved only a fraction of the consumption tax deductions NHK made in response to the viewer fee revenue falls.

Separately, a panel of NHK, set up in February in the wake of an insider trading scandal involving three former employees, announced the outcome of its investigation into stock trading activities by NHK staff.

Of 13,221 regular employees, and contract and other workers subject to the investigation, 81 were found to have conducted stock trading during their work hours.END

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