Keroche Breweries has reached a new deal to settle tax arrears to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in the next 24 months.
KRA said in a statement on Wednesday that the brewer will pay Sh957 million in a two-year period beginning in January 2022.
During a week-long negotiation process, the payment plan was agreed to and signed on March 14, 2022, as an addendum to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Agreements signed by the two parties in 2021.
The agreement sets the stage for the Naivasha brewery to reopen for production.
According to the agreement resulting from earlier Alternative Dispute Resolution processes, the rest of Keroche’s taxes will be resolved.
As a result of this signed addendum agreement, 36 bank notices will also be lifted by the KRA.
The KRA aims to promote dialogue and amicable resolution of tax disputes.
The Kenya Revenue Authority granted Keroche Breweries an 18-month grace period to pay all tax arrears last week.
Tabitha Karanja, Keroche’s chief executive officer, said that the requested period of uninterrupted operations is sufficient to settle the outstanding Sh832 million tax arrears.
She said, “Our humble appeal to the Commissioner-General is to kindly but urgently re-open our plant to prevent huge losses. We would wish to resume production, sales and distribution of our products to protect and safeguard the livelihoods of thousands of Kenyans employed by the company both directly and indirectly.”
She requested a meeting with the KRA boss to discuss her proposed payment plan.
At an earlier stage, KRA claimed there was unpaid tax of Sh22.79 billion owed to it by the company.