Car bazaar trio charged with Sh1bn tax evasion

Three directors of a motor vehicle importer have been charged in a Mombasa court with failing to declare correct car sales to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in a bid to evade paying taxes worth Sh1 billion.

Mr Khan Sultani Ali, Mr Iftikhar Adalat Ahmed and Mr Muhammad Adil were arraigned for the offences they are accused of committing between 2013 and 2017.

The three suspects who are directors of Rana Auto Selection Ltd, a car bazaar with outlets across major towns in the country, appeared before Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Rabera last week. They denied the accusations.

This comes two weeks after Pakistani Riasat Ali Khan, also a director at the company, was arraigned over similar offences. The three are charged with knowingly making an incorrect statement to the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes in their income tax returns for 2017 by failing to declare Sh1 billion car sales.

They are accused of failing to pay Sh302.5 million taxes by due date from the sales made in 2017.

The trio is also accused of doing the same for year 2016 by failing to declare Sh876.8 million sales the company made and failing to pay taxes worth Sh263.5 million.

In other charges, they are accused of failing to declare Sh551.1 million sales in 2015 and failing to remit Sh165.3 million taxes by due date that year.

The court also heard that they failed to declare Sh196 million sales in 2014 and failing to pay tax worth Sh59 million.

And in 2013, the court heard that the suspects failed to declare Sh207.7million sales and to remit Sh62.3 million taxes.

Mr Khan is out on Sh20 million bond terms with one Kenyan surety of a similar amount.

The three directors were granted a Sh10 million bond each with one surety of a similar amount.

The case will be heard on July 23.