Chinese tax evaders arrested in Malawi: MRA says conducting further probe

Barely a week after the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Joseph Mwanamvekha, committed of more tax enforcements to safeguard government revenues, two Chinese traders have been arrested in Blantyre for tax evasion offences.

According to the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) the two are Jiang Peng of United Manufacturing Company Limited and Yuan Chenggang of Herocean Enterprises.

“They have been arrested for violations of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act which led to tax revenue losses of over half a billion Kwacha between April to September this year,” said MRA’s Head of Corporate Affairs Steven Kapoloma.

In his inaugural national budget statement presented to Parliament last week, Mwanamvekha said the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with MRA will continue to monitor taxpayer compliance through risk based audits and enforcements.

Kapoloma said some documents seized from the two companies indicate that Herocean Enterprises did not charge VAT on certain sales resulting in the evasion of K580.9 million.

“United Manufacturing Company Limited in Blantyre sold motor vehicle batteries without charging VAT, evading K45 million in the process. The operation followed a tip from well-wishers,” said Kapoloma.

The suspects are currently at Blantyre Police Station as the Authority conducts further investigations.

Government is expecting K1.3 trillion tax revenues to be collected by MRA to finance the recently presented K1.7 trillion national budget for the 2019/2020 financial year.