Court directs Keroche to deposit Ksh.100M instead of Ksh.500M in battle with KRA

The High Court order requiring Keroche Breweries Limited to pay Kenya Revenue Authority KSh500 million as a condition to stop the taxman from recovering KSh9.1 billion from the company has now been set aside.



The Court of Appeal, in a ruling delivered Thursday, instead directed the company to deposit a sum of KSh100 million within 45 days.



The court said it had put into consideration all factors in the ruling including the challenging economic circumstances that the COVID-19 pandemic has put the country and the entire world under.



Also lifted is KRA’s notice issued on Equity Bank Limited and Absa Bank of Kenya on 11 March 2020 as well as any other notice that may have been issued to any the brewer’s bankers and debtors.



In March this year, Justice David Majanja directed the company to pay the said amount of money within 30 days failure to which an order stopping KRA from recovering the amount, by attaching Keroche’s accounts, would lapse.



Aggrieved by the High Court’s decision and refusal to vary the order, Keroche Breweries moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge the orders arguing that the judge erred in law in failing to consider the their inability to raise the said money.