MRA pounce on MCP lawmaker Peter Chakwantha’s firm

The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), on Thursday conducted a search at the business premises of Armstrong Oils and Car Accessories in Lilongwe on suspicion of tax evasion offences.

The search resulted in the seizure of some business documents from the company.

The operation follows a tip alleging that Armstrong Lawyers and Company, Armstrong Oils and Car Accessories and Armstrong Agro Trading, owned by Hon. Louis Peter Chakhwantha, M.P have not been remitting correct amount of taxes in form of Value Added Tax (VAT) and Income Tax.

MRA’s Steven Kapoloma Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs said in a statement that the documents seized during the operation are being analysed to verify the allegations made against the aforesaid companies.

Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has been missing revenue collection targets in the past. The development prompted Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to call for a meeting with MRA to find out why it continues missing monthly revenue collection targets. For example, January 2016 collection had a deficit of K5.9 billion.

According to MRA’s January 2016 Revenue Performance Report, dated February 2, 2016, the body managed to collect K52.7 billion out of Treasury’s targeted K58.6 billion representing a 10 percent drop.