NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 16 – Keroche Breweries is set to re-open after signing an agreement with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to pay Sh957 million tax arrears in two years.
The agreement with the taxman was reached on Wednesday, days after its Managing Director Tabitha Karanja went public on the company’s tribulations.
The payment will be made as pending taxes paving way for the reopening of the Naivasha-based brewer which had decried that it would risk laying off 250 employees and losing 2 million liters of beer in the tanks under fermentation worth Shs512 million should it remain shut.
A statement shared by KRA indicated that the two firms settled on an agreement that will see Keroche settle an undisputed tax amount of Sh957 million over a period of two years.
“The addendum agreement which flows from the earlier Alternative Dispute Resolution process will see the rest of the taxes owing from Keroche dealt with as was agreed between the two parties in the ADR already signed,” KRA said.
The signed addendum agreement will also see KRA lift agency notices issued to thirty-six banks .
KRA had disclosed that the troubled Naivasha-based Keroche Breweries owes it Sh22.79 billion in unpaid taxes in response to Karanja’s statement that it was being sabotaged by the agency.
According to KRA, the taxpayer (Keroche) has been collecting taxes from consumers but not remitting the same to KRA, it disclosed that Naivasha-based Keroche Breweries owes it Sh22.79billion in unpaid taxes.
“By allowing any taxpayer to continue collecting taxes and not remitting the same, KRA will not be executing her mandate of ensuring that taxes that fall due are remitted in a timely manner and that all taxpayers remit their fair share of taxes,” the taxman said in a statement.
Karanja had petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene, saying efforts to get an audience with the KRA commissioner General had hit a snag.
She claimed that they(Keroche) owe 322 million that accrued from February 2021 as well as 500,000 million and not the outstanding 21 billion figure stated by KRA.
“However, the 3.9 billion stated by KRA which is a combination of 1.1 billion from 2006 and 2.9 billion from 2012-2015 is hypothetical as Keroche neither charged nor collected the taxes due to ambiguity of the tax classification codes applied by KRA at the time,”she said.