An investigating officer in a case in which two directors of Mahesh and Tirth Construction Company limited are charged with over Sh30 million tax fraud has told the court that the company had claimed tax from two fictitious companies.
Chief Inspector George Otieno, the investigating officer from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) said that the two companies were flagged as fictitious as they were registered only on paper.
"It was a scheme that was made to assist genuine traders by issuing fictitious invoices to help the genuine trader to reduce taxes payable to the taxman,” he added. The commissioner consequently disallowed all the claims associated with the two companies.
He said the Registrar of Companies said Darwine wholesalers and Fahari wholesalers were not trading nor did they have physical addresses for trading.
Otieno further told the court that it was a scheme to assist genuine traders by issuing fictitious invoices to help them reduce taxes payable to KRA.
"Having received all the documents I had been briefed to examine the VAT returns in respect to Maeah and Tilth construction company for the period covering October 2015 to September 2017,"he said.
Mahesh Kumar Batukraijani and Valani Keshra Karsani and their company- Mahesh and Tirth construction company limited are accused of tax evasion.
It is alleged that between February 20, 2016, and September 20, 2017, jointly being directors of the company, they unlawfully made incorrect statements in the value-added tax return for the period, thereby reducing the company’s VAT liability by Sh17,483,602.
The prosecution told the court the two directors also jointly made incorrect statements in the value-added tax return for the period March 6, 2016, to January 1, 2017, thereby reducing the tax liability by Sh7,055,595.
The fraud case will be mentioned in two weeks time.
