Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has unearthed a tax evasion scheme by a billionaire MP who filed nil returns for five years despite receiving huge payouts.
According to KRA court documents, Lugari MP Ayub Savula, through his company Sunday Publishers Limited, earned Ksh1 Billion in five years from state agencies but never remitted taxes.
The cash, which was received between 2013 and 2017, was gotten from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), Ministry of Energy, Nairobi County Government, Migori County, Mombasa County and the National Lands Commission (NLC).
The contest, which has put the legislator at loggerheads with both KRA and the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), saw the MP slapped with a Ksh473.8 million in tax arrears including accrued interest.
Broken down, the company received Ksh84 million in 2013, Ksh174 million in 2014, Ksh397 million in 2015, Ksh150 million in 2016 and Ksh207 million in 2017.
The firm had, however, filed nil returns in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and never bothered to file any returns in 2013 and 2014 which prompted action from the taxman.
Savula, who co-owns the company with his wife, then moved to court to prevent their arrests by DCI.
In court filings, the duo sought “a declaration that the respondents impending and imminent arrest, detention and prosecution of the applicants amount to a gross violation of the petitioners’ fundamental rights and freedoms under the Constitution and under the relevant tax laws.”
This was, however, not the first time the MP and his two wives found themselves at loggerheads with the taxman or the government in general.
The MP, together with his wives; Kemboi and Melody Gatwiri Ringera, had been taken into police custody over allegations of being involved in the GAA graft.
On October 30, 2018, Savula was subsequently arraigned in court where he denied the charges and was freed on a KShs1 Million cash bail or Kshs2 Million bond.
