[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Kenya Revenue Authority is investigating a tax evasion cartel that’s believed to have siphoned billions of shillings. The rip-off, involving authorised collecting agents who collude with KRA staff, came to light late last year but investigations had been slowed down by a series of cover-ups.
Equity Bank has confirmed that two of its staff and some KRA officials are to be prosecuted over their role in a case where Ksh124 million in import duty was lost. It is understood that KRA and Equity employees colluded to manipulate the Simba System to fake clearance when actually no tax was paid. Equity Bank has surrendered two of its staff members to the to the KRA/Banking Fraud Investigation Unit police for prosecution.
“Equity has zero tolerance to bribery, corruption and facilitation payments across the business and will continue to cooperate with the police and the legal process as the issue continues to unfold,”Equity Bank said in a statement.
The move follows revelations the Kenya Revenue Authority may have lost billions of shillings in a tax fraud that has sucked in Equity Bank. The goods were then cleared and released from the ports of entry, with the ring sharing the loot.
KRA said that its probe would cover the Kenya Commercial Bank and the National Bank of Kenya, the two other big banks authorised to collect revenue on its behalf apart from Equity Bank. The new tax scandal, which is set to rock Times Towers, comes at a time when the authority is conducting a lifestyle audit on its key staff in an effort to root out rogue employees diverting tax money to their pockets.
“This office has been investigating allegations that the subject agent banks have been facilitating manipulation of the Simba system to the effect that Customs entries that have not been paid for are reflected as having been paid for… The irregular payment information is then relied upon by the DPC (Document Processing Centre) to pass the entries and the goods are then released,” one of the internal KRA memos read in part.
The memo to the KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini was written by the Commissioner for Investigations and Enforcement. Reached for comment, the taxman confirmed that the investigations were ongoing but refused to divulge any details, instead promising to share once the exercise was complete.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Leave a comment