By Donald Kogai
Two businessmen of Pakistani Nationality were
charged before Mombasa Chief Magistrate Ms
Edna Nyaloti for evading tax worth Ksh1.5
billion.
The traders, Rahim Qasim and Rameez Gulzar
Ali alongside their firm Jhulay Lal Commodities
limited were found to have been importing rice
into the country while deliberately failing to pay
Income Tax.
According to investigations, it was established
that for the period covering January 2015 and
December 2018, the suspects imported rice
worth Ksh1.68 Billion.
They sold the rice and banked the proceeds in
their various companies’ accounts.
The suspects faced three counts of tax evasion.
In the first count, the suspects while trading as
Jihulay Lai commodities limited, jointly with
others not before court, knowingly defaulted to
remit Income Tax of Ksh595, 363,478 in the
year 2016.
They also faced two other counts of defaulting
to pay Kshs434, 930, 264 in the year 2017.
The amount arose from omitted business
undertakings with a sum of Ksh1,441,318,809.
The suspects also defaulted to remit Kshs 522,
925,981 in the year 2018.
And accumulated from the omitted business
undertakings with a sum of Ksh1,735,015,739.
Accused pleaded not guilty and were released
on a bond of 20 Million surety of the same
amount.
State prosecution applied for the accused to
deposit their passports with court, which was
granted by the Magistrate in the ruling .
There arrest followed a lengthy investigations
carried out by KRA’s Investigation and
Enforcement Department on tax fraud schemes
into the country.
Criminal case will be mentioned on 3rd March
2020 9am East Africa Time.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.