KRA in bid to freeze bank accounts of Mary Mungai
Businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai’s woes continue to deepen with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), now seeking to freeze five of her bank accounts in a bid to recover Sh2.5 billion taxes which she is accused of evading.
KRA, in an application to the High Court, wants an order preserving the Sh2.5 billion held in the said accounts. The five accounts are at Equity Bank, Credit Bank, CFC Stanbic Bank, Family Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank.
In the application before the Commercial and Tax Division, KRA wants the monies frozen on grounds that no known assets are belonging to the company, Purma Holdings, satisfying the taxes to be found due and payable other than the said monies in the five bank accounts.
“In the circumstances, the interested parties may likely frustrate the recovery of the taxes, if funds held by the company and the two directors are not preserved,’ claimed KRA in court documents.
In an affidavit by KRA official James Wainaina, the taxman revealed that it checked into the online tax filing system –tax for purposes of establishing the tax compliance status of the company and its directors only to find out it had not fully disclosed its taxes.
Criminal conduct
“It was noticed that Purma Holdings and its directors, Mungai and her daughter Purity Njoki Mungai, had not correctly or fully disclosed its income for tax purposes,” claimed Wainaina in court documents.
KRA claims that transactions in the bank accounts revealed that the company received a total of Sh9.8 billion in 2014 and 2019, whereas, in their iTax ledger, the same amounts were not reflected.
“Failure of Purma Holdings and their directors to correctly declare its income and sales for tax purposes, does not only derive the government of the much-needed revenue but also amounts to tax evasion and a criminal conduct,” argues KRA Officer, Wainaina in court documents.
Investigations revealed that Purma Holdings declared a total of Sh1.9 billion for income tax purposes against the established taxable income from banking information of Sh7.6 billion, thereby manifesting gross under-declarations.
“Investigations further revealed that the company made supplies of Sh7.9 billion during the period under investigation yet the company only declared Sh281,632,573 for tax purposes,” claimed Wainaina.
Mungai, her daughter and their company Purma Holdings were charged last year with evading taxes amounting to Sh2.5 billion from 2014 to 2019.
The counts included unlawfully omitting taxes due which were submitted to the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes for the period between 2014 and 2016.
They denied the charges last December and were each released on an Sh50 million bond or a surety of Sh25 million.
