Mary Mungai woes deepen as KRA seeks to freeze her bank accounts

Businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai and her daughter, Purity Njoki, woes continue to deepen after Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) moved to court to freeze their thirteen accounts over allegations of tax evasion.

In an application to the High Court, the taxman wants an order preserving the Sh2.5 billion held in the said accounts.

The targeted accounts are in Equity, Stanbic, Credit Bank, Family and KCB. Six of the accounts are registered under Purma Holdings, while the rest are in Mungai’s name.

According to the taxman, Mungai, through her business, received a total of Sh9.88 billion in the said period but was not reflected in the iTax ledger.

“I traced the payments to the bank accounts but the first interested party (Purma Holdings) and its directors being second and third interested parties never fully declared payments for both tax and VAT (value-added tax) purposes during the period under review,” an investigator at the KRA said in an affidavit.

Through the court documents, KRA says that Mungai deals in supplies to government departments both in the country and region, but she failed to declare the correct tax in the said period.

The taxman says Mungai and her daughter both directors of Purma Holdings Ltd, are believed to have evaded paying tax of Sh2.5 billion by failing to declare the correct taxes between 2014-2019.

The company made income of Sh7.65 billion, however, it only declared Sh1.9 billion, denying the taxman Sh1.93 billion.

Additionally, the company made supplies of Sh7.66 billion, Purma declared Sh281 million and in the process denied the KRA 597 million.

The taxman wants the amounts held by aforesaid respondents’ banks be preserved pending the issuance of tax assessments and recovery of taxes or until further court orders of the court.

In case the accounts are not frozen, the taxman wants the court to impose terms that would act as security, pending the determination of the case.

Mungai and her daughter were charged with tax evasion in December after being hunted by police for a while.

Last week, she was back in court seeking to get back her passport to travel to Turkey to inspect some furniture she is acquiring for a hotel she is putting up in Nairobi.

The prosecution had opposed the release of the passport, saying she was a flight risk.

However, chief magistrate Felix Kombo allowed her to travel after depositing additional money in court as security.