NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 6 – Keroche Breweries has said tax demand of Sh14.1 billion from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is incorrect.
In August 2019, the brewery directors were arrested for evading taxes.
While Keroche says it used 60.9 million liters of crescent vodka mixed with 101.1 million liters of distilled water to make 162 million liters of viena ice ready to drink vodka (15 percent alcohol content), KRA alleges that 101.1 million liters was used to dilute 60.9 million liters.
Out of 60.9 million liters of crescent vodka at Sh120 per liter, Keroche was to pay Sh7.3 billion in taxes.
However, KRA’s alleged that 101.1 million liters was used to dilute the 60.9 million liters, representing a Sh12.1 billion tax plus a VAT of 1.9 billion-amounting to Sh14 billion.
“Kenya has shortages of fools to believe that 101,088,000.00 Lts of distilled water can generate Kes.12 Billion as excise tax unless a miracle was performed and water was turned into vodka,” Karanja said.
“The only person we know who changed water into wine was Jesus and it was given for free to the multitude,” She added.
She says the case has prevented the firm from raising funds from within and outside, coming on the back of Covid impact that saw clubs closed for 2-years.
“We highly condemn the actions by the DPP to continually frustrate Keroche breweries on fake claims,” Karanja said.
“This is against the clarion call by the president’s on broadening the tax bracket while damaging a company that in full capacity is capable of generating a billion Kenya shillings in monthly tax remittances given a conducive environment.”
