- PART ONE
By The Weekly Vision
Despite the efforts made by President Ruto’s administration to ensure his government collects maximum taxes to finance its expenditure, some unscrupulous businessmen in the country are running a syndicate to evade tax. Investigations conducted by The weekly Vision reveal there is a racket of suspected tax evasion between Texplast Industries Ltd and one Forex Bureau (name withheld) that the government needs to investigate further.
Texplast Industries Ltd are the manufacturers of polypropylene woven and laminated sacks, ad-star block bottomed woven valve sacks for cement/minerals packaging, flexible packaging, non-woven polypropylene products, masks and PPE. President William Ruto has been tough on suspected tax dodgers going by his statement in February where he said: “I am happy that as a country we have agreed and built consensus that irrespective of your status or all other considerations, whatever region and religion you have come from, we have agreed that there will be no waiver of taxes for anybody. We have agreed that everyone will pay their taxes,”
One director at TexPlast Industries Ltd Mr Bipin Nemchad Shah who is a holder of a Prepaid Mastercard No.52440600000393** issued by Diamond Trust bank needs to be investigated for tax evasion. It is alleged that his Prepaid Mastercard has been used in the past to launder money, which is an offence in Kenya as defined in the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2009.
Investigations further reveal that on the 22nd October 2022, two of his clients at TexPlast Industries Ltd, JTM and JKM of phone numbers 0725 xxx 899 and 0714 xxx 607 respectively made deposits of Ksh. 900,000 and 492,000 to the said Forex Bureau. The money was then converted into USD then loaded on Mr Bipin’s Prepaid Mastercard. The two clients were then advised to collect goods from TexPlast Industries Ltd premises, the transaction was purely designed to avoid paying taxes.
One thing that needs further investigation is the fact that sending clients to make deposits at a Forex Bureau is unlawful considering that during such transactions between TexPlast, JTM and JKM at the forex bureau, the Kenya Revenue Authority was not involved and revenue was lost. It is also important to note that a Forex Bureau is not registered by the Central Bank of Kenya as a deposit-taking financial institution. The Banking Fraud Investigating Unit (BFIU) should investigate the forex bureau. It has also been discovered that the Kenya Revenue Authority has not been able to audit and collect taxes from TexPlast Industries for the last 15 years.
