In its Spirited war against tax evasion, the Kenya Revenue Authority has gone after Mr. Gao Fei who is the director of the New X-TIGI Technology company Limited. The company deals with the wholesale and distribution of X-Tigi branded smartphones chargers, phone covers etc.
According to the KRA, Mr. Fei was charged at the Milimani Law Courts with three counts of failure to submit tax returns and pay taxes amounting to Kshs. 194 Million.
“He was charged with failure to declare and remit taxes for a period of eight months that was commensurate to the company’s sales. He denied the charges before Senior Resident Magistrate Caroline Nzibe,” KRA said in a statement.
This is not the first time X-Tigi is clashing with KRA, back in 2016, KRA accused the first of evading tax and wanted its accounts frozen. KRA is actually accusing X-Tigi of not filing returns for the 2015 and 2016 financial years.
Mr Fei was released on a cash bail of Kenya shillings one hundred and fifty thousand (Kshs. 150,000/=) with a Kenyan surety of one million bond and ordered deposit his passport in court. He is scheduled to appear in court on 26th September 2019.
With this arrest, I am left wondering how many other smartphone distributors are evading taxes and which one will the Kenya Revenue Authority go after next.