BY IRENE ONYANGO.
Keroche Breweries chief executive officer Tabitha Karanja has been charged afresh with failure to pay taxes amounting Sh14 billion.
The Nakuru senator appeared before Milimani Principal Magistrate Esther Kimilu and denied all the charges, which were amended by the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji and dropped her husband Joseph Karanja.
She denied a total of 10 counts relating to tax evasion.
The charge sheet stated that she committed the offence on diverse dates between 20th February 2015 and June 2019, being a director of Keroche Breweries Limited.
The first count said she knowingly made incorrect statements in her excise duty returns for the period between January 2015 to December 2015.
She was also accused of under-declaring production volumes by 820,601 Litres and mis-application of excise duty rates on Vienna ice by using Sh27.06 instead of Sh175 thereby reducing your Excise Duty Liability by Sh1,855,403,900 payable to the Commissioner as required by the excise duty.
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 fresh plea from the amended charge sheet.
The court also heard that there are some documents inform of electronic certificates that were to be supplied to the defense and had not yet been supplied.
The court gave the parties 45 days to settle the case out of court as requested by the Kenya Revenue Authority.
If the parties fail to agree, the trial will commence on 27th July 2023.
