Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja has denied claims that her brewer is facing challenges because of political reasons.
Speaking in an interview with Citizen TV on Wednesday night, Karanja said that her competitors are always pursuing her company during political seasons so that the blame can fall on politics.
KRA and Keroche have been involved in an unending tax row since 2006 and it is not clear when the back and forth will end.
“It was ending apart from this difference because we were requesting this and I don’t know how it came, I don’t want to say it is political because many people are saying it is politics, it is not. This is a business war, there is a hand there trying to use KRA to push us out of the market. They always come at such a time when politics is on and people are confused and there is that divide for the political whatever so meaning we were even ending this,” Karanja explained.
According to her, they had agreed to solve the matter through an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) about three months ago with KRA’s Commissioner General Githii Mburu by taking a case out of court
“I remember even the commissioner general telling me, the last time I was in his office, that even the case that is in court we can now remove it so that now we can come again and do it through the ADR. It IS about 3 months when we were talking about that. He is the one who told me I need to get that case out of court so that we take it through the ADR, because it is bad for KRA to be seen in a criminal case with a taxpayer” she said.
She added that she was surprised to see the matter taking such a sharp turn after having the discussion with the KRA Director General.
Karanja insists that they owe KRA Kshs322 million which they were unable to remit due to the covid pandemic.
Earlier on, KRA, in newspaper publications, said that Keroche owes them up to Khs22.7 billio. Since January 2021 to date, the amount piled is Kshs351,000
The tribulations facing Keroche had been assumed to have resulted from politics since Karanja will be vying for Nakuru senatorial seat under UDA ticket.
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