The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has signalled peace with Keroche Breweries after day-long negotiations with the owners of the embattled firm on Thursday over a disputed Sh22.79 billion tax bill.
The taxman revealed that a deal was being hammered by Thursday evening to provide “an amicable road map” for settling the dispute.
“We have had day-long discussions and we have made good progress. We will put this into an implementable agreement and I have a firm conviction that we will have an amicable solution. The teams have agreed to go and look at the documents [on a new deal] before we can make it public.”
KRA Commissioner-General Githii Mburu without divulging additional details.
Mr Mburu said further talks are expected to yield a deal, paving the way for Keroche to pay tax arrears under the negotiated agreement in exchange for the opening of the brewer’s factory.
However he remained tight-lipped on the concessions made by the two parties following the talks.
previously, Keroche Breweries Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tabitha Karanja appealed to KRA to give the company an 18 months grace period on the taxes in arrears. Tabitha said the company is willing to go back to the table with KRA to come up with a more realistic payment plan.
Keroche also appealed to KRA to allow the reopening of its plant in Naivasha to prevent huge losses and lift the agency notices with the 36 banks, which demanded the lenders wire cash from the Keroche accounts to the taxman’s bankers.
Keroche said it had over two million litres of beer worth about Sh512 million in its storage with a fixed maintenance cost of Sh30 million per month.
“If nothing is done in the next seven days, we will be forced to drain down all the beer and lay down over 250 direct employees and thousands within our nationwide distribution network,” the company had said.
