AKI Investment which owns Mugg and Bean complex and runs all the companies on the complex is battling financial and legal crises after the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) gave it next Wednesday (16th February 2022) as dead line to pay about MK200 million in revenue taxes as initial settlement.
The development occurred after it transpired that the foreign company which is operating in Malawi owed the tax collector more than three billion in unpaid and dodged taxes.
In the ended week, efforts by lawyers acting for AKI Investment to obtain restraining court order and other reliefs from different divisions of the High Court ended in vain.
In December last year, the Mugg and Bean premises were closed off for two weeks by MRA upon discovery of their tax dodging practices. The two parties came up with an agreement through the company’s banks in which the MRA was to recover its dues through the banks.
However, two weeks ago the banks withdrew from the agreement after noticing that Tiger Wheels, one of the companies owned by AKI and also operating on the same premises, was diverting money to an off shore account.
The bank observed that the agreed amount that the company was supposed to bank every week was not being met. This prompted the bank to investigate the company’s transactions in which the offshoring of money by the company was discovered.
AKI Investment, which has been supplying firearms to the Malawi Defense Force, is also being investigated by the ACB for corruption.
Last month, Fayaz Muhammad, the managing director of the company was summoned by the Fiscal Police and the ACB to explain his role in cases of adjustments of agreed prices and changing of the contracts with government through the Malawi Defense Force.
Meanwhile, Shire Times understands that Fayaz Muhammad is trying to reach out to the Commissioner General of MRA to reach a backdoor compromise.
Nevertheless, sources at MRA are alleging that nobody is ready to entertain Muhammad since the case has roots at ACB.
