A Nairobi Court has issued a warrant of arrest for Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja for failing to attend the hearing of her Sh14.5 billion tax returns case.
Milimani senior principal magistrate Esther Kimilu issued the warrant after the court was told that the Nakuru Senator was not present for her case.
The prosecution requested the court to issue a warrant and schedule a hearing of the case on Thursday morning.
The case will proceed tomorrow when Tabitha is expected to appear in court.
In April, Tabitha was charged afresh and denied 10 counts of tax evasion.
This was after the prosecution requested to amend the charges, saying some particulars were missing in the 2019 charge sheet.
According to the charge sheet, the accused and the company on dates between February 20, 2015, and January 20, 2016, unlawfully made incorrect statements in their excise duty returns by reducing their duty by Sh1.8 billion.
She allegedly also made incorrect statements for the January to December 2017 returns, which affected payable excise duty by Sh3.6 billion.
According to the prosecution, between February 20 and July 20, the accused unlawfully omitted from their VAT returns for January to June affecting their VAT liability by Sh196 million.
Tabitha was also accused of under-declaring production volumes by 820,601 litres and misapplication of excise duty rates on Vienna Ice by using Sh27.06 instead of Sh175, thereby reducing her excise duty liability by Sh1, 855, 403, 900 payable to the commissioner as required by the Excise Duty Act.
The defence however indicated to the court that they seek to settle the matter out of court.
“We have already initiated the process of settling the matter with KRA and if the court allows, we wish to have the matter settled,” the court was told.
A KRA representative who was present in court said the office has no intentions to have the matter settled out of court since they have not received any information.