A shipping company is demanding a refund of more than Sh150 million from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Inshape Shipping Service is seeking orders from the High Court to compel the tax collector to process a refund of Sh150,125,095 contained in VAT certificates and claims.
In a suit filed before the High Court, the shipping company also wants the court to quash KRA's decision to reject their claim for a refund in VAT amounting to over Sh20 million dated February 19, this year.
The firm is also asking the court to stop KRA and its agents from recovering VAT amounting to Sh18 million and to further stop the tax collector from taking adverse actions against them. The company's Chief Executive Officer David Mackay stated in an affidavit that KRA's domestic Taxes Department conducted an audit report of their tax affairs for January 2010 to June 2012; whereby it was required to file its statement of facts by June 7, 2013, if they disagreed with what had been filed.
Mr Mackay pointed out that since KRA had accepted the facts in their statement of facts, it was required to inform the secretary of the VAT Tribunal in which event the appeal would proceed as the statement of facts was unchallenged.
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"KRA has not filed its statements of facts within the stipulated time and to date, more than two years later, they still have not," he said.
He accused KRA of refusing to process the payment of VAT refunds due to them and ignoring them by not issuing any response on the matter.
KRA, he said, continues to abuse its powers with regard to refunds. The firm asked the court to certify the matter as urgent.
