The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in interception mode managed to seize imported ethanol and a luxury car at the Mombasa Port, stopping smugglers from succeeding in tax evasion of over Ksh12 million.
In a statement on July 4, the taxman said it had nabbed 144 drums of imported ethanol as well as a high end vehicle identified as a Range Rover Sport.
KRA said, “The two were intercepted following intelligence reports; they were scanned through KRA’s non-intrusive scanners and the images showed inconsistency with what had been manifested.”
The ethanol had been misdelcared as 1,000 bags of cement while the Range Rover Sport had been misdeclared second hand window frames, doors, folding chairs, stools and wall pictures.
KRA also said that the high end vehicle, en route from Dubai to Uganda, is suspected to have been stolen from the United Kingdom.
“A multi-agency team lead by KRA undertook 100% verification on the consignment and confirmed that the three containers were indeed carrying 28,800 litres of concealed ethanol and a Range Rover,” KRA added.
The drums with a capacity of 200 liters each were concealed in 285 boxes of spaghetti at the entrance of the containers to prevent the law enforcers from detecting the ethanol.
According to the taxman, the mode of concealment was similar to that of four 20 foot containers recently intercepted at the inland container depot (ICD) in Nairobi.
In order to reduce the manufacturing of illicit alcohol, importation of ethanol is restricted with only licensed firms and dealers allowed to import the product.
Ethanol attracts excise duty of Ksh6 million per 20-foot container and had the smugglers succeeded, the authority could have lost at least Sh12 million in taxes.
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