Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja Charged Afresh in Sh14 Billion Tax Evasion Case

Keroche Breweries Limited CEO Tabitha Karanja on Thursday pleaded not guilty to fresh tax evasion charges.

This is after the prosecution requested to amend the charge sheet in the Sh14.5 billion tax evasion case against Karanja and her company.

Karanja, who is the senator of Nakuru County, denied 10 counts of tax evasion before Milimani senior principal magistrate Esther Kimilu.

During her court appearance, Keroche’s attorneys said they want to have the matter resolved through an out-of-court agreement.

But KRA officer Irene Muthee told the court that there had been no agreement to settle the matter outside of court as Keroche would be required to notify the commissioner in writing under the Tax Procedure Act.

Consequently, the court gave Keroche 45 days to begin the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process with KRA, failure to which the case will go to full trial.

Karanja denied that on diverse dates between February 20th, 2015, and January 20th, 2016, within the Republic of Kenya, being a director of Keroche Breweries Limited and a liability company, knowingly made incorrect statements in excise duty for the period January 2015 to December 2015.

She is accused of declaring production volumes of 820,602 liters and misapplication of excise duty rates on Vienna Ice by using Sh27.06 instead of Sh175 thereby reducing the excise liability by Sh1,855,403,900 payable to the KRA as required by the Excise Duty Act.

Karanja is further accused of making incorrect statements for January 2017 to December 2017 which affected their payable excise duty by Sh3.6 billion.

The prosecution also alleges that between February 20th, 2019, and January 20th, 2019, she unlawfully omitted from the brewer’s VAT returns for January to December amounting to Sh196 million.

The case will be heard on July 26th.