Officials of Riders Uganda at Court after plea taking
The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala has charged five officials of Riders Uganda Limited for causing tax losses valued at more than 5 billion shillings.
They are Pius Mwilili Muli, and Richard Drakuma who are both directors, three accountants Obadiah Kioko, a Kenyan national, Betty Namwanje, and Stephen Kasenge.
On Wednesday, they were arraigned before court presided over by Acting Senior Principal Grade One Magistrate Abert Asiimwe and charged with three counts of making a false statement to a tax officer, contrary to the Tax Procedures Code Act of 2014.
The court heard that between July 2015 to June 2021 being the Directors and Accountants respectively of Riders Uganda Limited for the purposes of evading tax, knowingly made a false statement to the tax officer that sales as declared in the monthly Value Added Tax -VAT returns for that period amounted to 13.6 billion Shillings instead of 26 billion. This, according to the prosecution caused a tax loss in Value Added Tax of 2.5 billion shillings to the Uganda Revenue Authority.
The court has also heard that during the same time, they declared annual sales amounting to 4 billion shillings instead of 26.8 billion Shillings hence a loss of 1.4 billion shillings to the tax collector, URA.
It is also alleged that they evaded tax and declared pay as you earn -PAYE amounting to 671.6 million shillings instead of 1.8 billion shillings and in the aftermath, a tax of loss in PAYE amounting to 1.1 billion shillings was lost.
The suspects denied the charges and through their lawyer, Isaac Walukaga applied for bail pleading innocence and being responsible citizens with families to look after.
Kioko, Namwanje, and Kasenge were each granted a cash bail of 5 million Shillings and their sureties will sign a non-cash bond form of 30 million shillings each, not cash.
Muli and Drakuma were also each granted cash bail of 20 million Shillings and their sureties 100 million shillings not cash.
The case was adjourned to August 15th, 2023 for an update on the progress of investigations.
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