Kenya Revenue Authority raised an alarm over tax evading activity happening at the port of Mombasa from the car importers. The Taxman raised the alarm when around 150 vehicles were missing the correct records of the importation process. They started the investigations and even ending up overhaul the KRA officials at the Mombasa port. The process of scrutization took close to two weeks and the number was decreased. This comes barely four days after the the Kenya Revenue Authority had issued a recall notice on 124 luxury cars with suspicious tax status at the car registration headquaters.
The crackdown started in the wake of increasing cases of cars allocated for
other countries finding their way into the black market, which then reduced the national tax income done by
the Kenya revenue authority. KRA recently impounded three Range Rovers worth
Sh28 million concealed in a cargo container, which had been declared as personal items with
household goods while on transit to Uganda.
Its only last week British famous publication, the Economist in an article claimed
that the port of Mombasa had become a loophole and an intermediate for cars stolen in the
United Kingdom which were taken to the black market across east and central africa. The Newspaper claims that an approximate number of 79,000 cars
stolen in the U.K manufacturing firms found their way to East Africa through the ports of
Mombasa, Boma in Congo and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania whereby the port of Mombasa allegedly to be the most target with many loopholes of the car cartels as it is more corrupt compared to other ports mentioned.
“We are conscious that some of these vehicles may have already been
sold or taken to other countries by cartels to innocent unsuspecting customers and we are asking them to
co-operate with our officers in the on-going investigations,” KRA officials said.