KRA probes cargo company over tax evasion

 

 

A cargo company is being investigated over alleged tax evasion through importation of undervalued and undeclared goods.

Sources from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) say investigators are seeking to establish if the company was deliberately under-declaring the consignments or smuggling taxable products.

Customs officials and Directorate of Criminal Investigations detectives who visited the company's facilities on a fact-finding mission said they found a consignment of electronic goods, mainly mobile phones, that had just been imported.

Officials want to ascertain if the goods had been undervalued to evade levies due to the government, which led to suspicion of existence of a cartel that has been fleecing taxpayers of millions of shillings.

Preliminary investigations point to a collusion between the owners and some rogue KRA officials, with the latter facilitating false declarations, thereby denying the taxman requisite taxes such as import duty.

“We suspect they also allow in counterfeits. We are investigating, together with KRA, the claims,” said an official at DCI who asked not to be named.

The probe comes on the heels of a report by Rolling Cargo Ltd that it had lost mobile phones valued at Sh120 million which were on transit.

Mohamed Hassan Mohamed said the company had on April 9 reported to the police that their 750 cartons of Infinix phones were  stolen while on transit from the African Cargo at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to its warehouse in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

Three suspects are facing charges over the incident.