Seven witnesses have been lined up to testify against Billionaire Mohan Galot in the Sh2.5 billion tax evasion case.
When the matter was mentioned before Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi for pre-trial direction, the prosecution said that they had supplied the accused with all the evidence documents that will be used during his trial.
They added that the inventory document dated July 27, 2021, has been filed which contains 22 exhibits.
They also indicated that they are ready to proceed with the case to the full hearing.
“This matter is serious and requires thorough trial but since am on transfer I will leave it to the upcoming court,” added Milimani Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi.
He set October 29, 2021 as the date for pre-trial and fixing of the hearing date.
18 Charges
In this case, Galot has been charged with tax evasion amounting to over Sh2.5 billion.
He faces a total of 18 charges of failing to pay taxes in what the prosecution termed as economic crimes aimed at sabotaging the country’s economy by weakening its tax revenue.
The court heard that the accused failed to declare VAT sales worth Sh3.5 billion with a VAT tax implication of Sh563 million for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019.
Failure to declare such sales in the VAT return is an offense contrary to the VAT Act No. 35 of 2013.
The accused are further charged with failure to declare production volumes of 168,157 liters of ready-to-drink beverage and 8,048,268 liters of spirit in 2016, 2017, and 2019.
This, according to the court papers, led to a revenue loss of Sh1.5b in excise duty.
The accused are further facing additional counts of failure to declare Sh189m in the income tax returns for 2016 and 2017 as stipulated in the Income Tax Act Cap 470.
Consequently, the court heard that the accused failed to pay income taxes totaling Sh56m for the two years.
The accused denied all the charges and were released on an Sh5 million bond and a surety of a similar amount.
The matter is set for mention on October 29, 2021.
