A director of Hanamal Constructions Limited Mr. Hassan Ahmednur Baricha was yesterday charged with tax fraud amounting to KShs. 173 million.
Mr. Ahmednur was arraigned before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Hon. Peter Ooko with five counts of falsifying statements to lower the tax liability payable to the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes as required by the Income Tax Act CAP 470, Laws of Kenya. The offences are contrary to Section 97(c) and Section 104(3) of the Tax Procedure Act, 2015.
On the first count, Mr Ahmednur, as the Director of Hanamal Construction Limited which is a limited liability company unlawfully made incorrect statements in Income Tax return for the year 2015 and reduced the Corporate Tax Liability by Kshs 4,944,163.
Secondly, he unlawfully made incorrect statements in his Income Tax return for the year 2016, which reduced his Corporate Tax Liability by Kshs 20,817,971.
On the third count, the accused was charged with unlawfully making incorrect statements in the Income Tax return for the year 2017 reducing the Company’s Corporate Tax Liability by Kshs 24,106,797.
On the fourth count, Mr Ahmednur unlawfully made incorrect statements in the Income Tax return for the year 2015, 2016 and 2017 that reduced his Income Tax liability by Kshs 57,538,801.
In the fifth count, the suspect unlawfully made incorrect statements in his Value Added Tax returns (VAT) in 2015, 2016, and 2017 thereby reducing his VAT liability by Kshs 65,651,535.
The suspect denied all the charges and the ruling on his bond and bail terms will be heard tomorrow 15th October 2019. The prosecution was opposed to release of the accused person on bond for reasons that the accused is a flight risk, armed and had resisted arrest causing grievous body harm to the arresting officer.
Meanwhile two people were on Friday, 11th October 2019 charged before the Kisumu Winam Court Senior Resident Magistrate, Fatuma Rashid for knowingly evading to pay taxes worth Kshs 1, 559,704.06. The suspects, Ms Elizabeth Wairimu and Mr Benedict Wamukota, a clearing agent, had imported goods but did not pay the due taxes.
The goods were suspected to have been smuggled from Uganda and were being transported to Kamukunji area in Nairobi. The truck that was transporting the consignment was intercepted by KRA officers and other multi-agency team members along Daraja Mbili, Busia Road.
The suspects pleaded not guilty and were released on a bond of Kshs 2 million or a cash bail of Kshs 1.5 million. The mention is set for 24th October 2019.
Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]