KRA impounds luxury car in tax swoop
What you need to know:
Although KRA blacklisted 124 vehicles on Saturday, the operation revealed that there were more vehicles with tax issues or without the requisite importation documents.
Officers from the Investigations and Enforcement Department of KRA together with NTSA officials visited several car bazaars in Nairobi.
At Valley Road Motors, the team seized at least four vehicles, among them an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser VX.
Kenya Revenue Authority officials on Wednesday impounded several luxury vehicles whose import duty had not been paid or which had questionable ownership documents.
Although the taxman had blacklisted 124 vehicles on Saturday, the operation revealed that there were more vehicles with tax issues or without the requisite importation documents.
Officers from the Investigations and Enforcement Department of the KRA together with National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) officials visited several car bazaars in Nairobi.
ARMOURED VEHICLE
At Valley Road Motors, the team seized at least four vehicles, among them an armoured Toyota Land Cruiser VX.
A KRA official said the vehicle, whose registration number is KCA 515P, had been registered twice before.
According to papers provided by the proprietor, Mr Francis Ng’ang’a Mundia, the vehicle was imported by Ganatra Plant and Equipment Ltd on September 27, 2014 and the duty paid was indicated as Sh1.399 million.
A Toyota Prado that had been registered as 100 UN 12K was also put on display at the yard with the number plates removed.
Mr Mundia, however, told the officials that his company was yet to pay the Sh872,701 duty.
KRA officials also found a Range Rover, KBY 346U, which was on the blacklist.
The vehicle, which had its front number plate removed and was up for sale, has been in the country since 2014 and is said to have been under-valued and a lower duty paid for it.
At Prestige World Motors on Ngong Road, more vehicles were seized.
Other vehicles had also been spotted either on the roads or at various car yards.
At least 15 vehicles, including a white Range Rover, were spotted on the roads.
The owners of the vehicles listed or seized are expected to present them along with original ownership, transfer and importation documents to the KRA Commissioner of Investigations and Enforcement at the Railway Club from 11am.
The KRA has also been liaising with Interpol, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Regional Intelligence Liaison Office and other investigation agencies to smash a tax-evasion ring involving cartels from the United Kingdom and Uganda.
In March, KRA officials impounded luxury cars imported from Britain disguised as household goods.
