Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja charged afresh in Sh 14 billion tax fraud case

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Senator Tabitha Karanja at Milimani Law Courts where she was charged afresh in the Sh 14 billion Keroche Breweries tax fraud case

Keroche Breweries boss and Nakuru Senator Tabitha Karanja has been charged afresh over Sh 14 billion tax fraud.

Karanja is accused that on diverse dates between 20th February 2015 and 20th January 2016 within the Republic of Kenya, being the director of Keroche Breweries Limited and a

Limited Liability Company, knowingly made incorrect statements in her excise duty returns for the period between January 2015 to December 2015 by under declaring production volumes by 820,601 litres and misapplication of excise duty rates on Vienna Ice by using Sh 27.06 instead of Sh175 thereby reducing your Excise Duty Liability by Sh 1,855,403,900 payable to the Commissioner.

The Senator faces several other charges of tax fraud for the year 2015 to June 2019 totalling to Sh 14 billion.

She denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Esther Kimilu 

The prosecution told the court that the previous charge sheet had a few errors that had to be corrected hence the accused had to take a plea afresh after the charges were amended.

The court also heard that there are some documents informing of electronic certificates that were to be supplied to the defence and had not yet been supplied. 

Karanja asked the court for time to try out of court settlement with the taxman. The magistrate granted her 45 days to settle, failure to which the trial will commence on 27th July 2023.