More trouble awaits businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai and her daughter after Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) moved to court to freeze 13 accounts linked to the former Jubilee party campaign financier over allegations of tax evasion.
In the petition filed at the High Court, the taxman says Ms Mungai and her daughter Purity Njoki, both directors of Purma Holdings Ltd, are believed to have evaded paying tax of Sh2.5 billion by failing to declare the correct taxes between 2014-2019.
The KRA says in the court documents that Ms Mungai deals in supplies to government departments both in the country and region, but she failed to declare the correct tax in the said period.
The targeted accounts are in Equity , Stanbic , Credit Bank, Family and KCB . Six of the accounts are registered under Purma Holdings, while the rest are in Ms Mungai’s name.
According to the taxman, Ms Mungai, through her business, received a total of Sh9.88 billion in the said period but was not reflected in the iTax ledger.
“I traced the payments to the bank accounts but the first interested party (Purma Holdings) and its directors being second and third interested parties never fully declared payments for both tax and VAT (value-added tax) purposes during the period under review,” an investigator at the KRA said in an affidavit.
The prosecution had opposed the release of the passport, saying she was a flight risk. However, chief magistrate Felix Kombo allowed her to travel after depositing additional money in court as security.Ms Mungai and her daughter were slapped with tax evasion charges in December after being hunted by police for a while. And last week, she was back in court seeking to get back her passport to travel to Turkey to inspect some furniture she is acquiring for a hotel she is putting up in Nairobi.
The KRA wants the court to issue orders preserving the funds in the said accounts and prohibiting the banks from releasing or transferring the money, pending tax assessment and payment or further orders of the court.
Court documents said where the company made income or Sh7.65 billion, it only declared Sh1.9 billion, denying the taxman Sh1.93 billion.
In another instance, the company made supplies of Sh7.66 billion, Purma declared Sh281 million and in the process denied the KRA 597 million.
“The amounts held by aforesaid respondents banks be preserved pending the issuance of tax assessments and recovery of taxes or until further court orders of the court,” KRA said.
In case the accounts are not frozen, the taxman wants the court to impose terms that would act as security, pending the determination of the case.
The Nairobi-based businesswoman has bagged tenders, including the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency and supplying boots, uniforms and cereals to the military, among other State departments.
skiplagat@ke.nationmedia.com
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