KRA to appeal court decision directing it to reinstate a local brewers license.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 5 – The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says it will appeal a High Court’s decision which directed it to reinstate Mt. Kenya Breweries Limited with an excise license and allow it to resume operations.

High Court judge Weldon Korir had directed KRA to resume the issuance of excise stamps for production and unsealing the manufacturing premises which were revoked.

In a statement, the authority, however, stated that they were within their mandate to suspend the breweries license due to it being in possession of goods bearing counterfeit excise duty stamps

“We welcome the finding of the High Court in the case of Mt. Kenya Breweries Limited vs Kenya Revenue Authority where the Court has upheld that the Authority may suspend a license of a licensee without notice in instances of tax fraud,” it said

“The Authority will therefore prefer an appeal against the directive to reissue the excise license and Excise Duty stamps to the taxpayer prematurely,” it added.

KRA further added that it would stick to its decision for it had given the brewery enough time to show cause why the license should not be suspended, and it failed in this regard.

KRA suspended the brewery back in April after it found that it was in possession of 16,600 bottles of its product allegedly affixed with unverified excise stamps.

The authority also seized a vehicle from the premise that the brewery used to transport the goods to an undisclosed place.

The court further directed the authority to return the seized car, citing that it was not within their mandate to withhold items that do not bear the fake stamps.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the order does not extend to the products allegedly bearing counterfeited excise stamps seized from the manufacturing premises,” Justice Weldon Korir said.

He further added that KRA was not acting in the interest of the public but instead it was infringing the rights of the workers in the brewery.

“When KRA proceeds to kill businesses in the guise of collecting taxes, it becomes an undertaker and will eventually die since its survival depends on the existence of income-generating businesses in which it can collect taxes,” he said.

However, the authority claimed that its duty was to maintain a balance between its mandate of enforcement action and taxpayers’ wants and therefore their decisions were always in the interest of the people.

“We will continue to carry out this mandate fairly, transparently, and strictly in compliance with various laws and legal notices put in place,” it said.