MRA pounces on DPP’s Charles Mchacha

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MRA pounces on DPP’s Charles Mchacha
MRA pounces on DPP’s Charles Mchacha

Africa-PressMalawi. Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) officials Wednesday raided the house of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regional governor for the South Charles Mchacha over alleged tax evasion.

The MRA officials were accompanied by police in the search. Mchacha, who is also Member of Parliament for Thyolo West Constituency, confirmed the development, saying they went away with an old cheque and loan application form.

“They told my wife to go into my bedroom and they searched everywhere but they did not find anything. They only took a very old cheque and a form I used to apply for a loan at National Bank of Malawi,” he said. Mchacha described the raid as a move by the current administration to silence him and the DPP from raising issues against it.

He claimed the search was government’s reaction to the DPP’s recent press briefing in Mangochi District, where the party outlined how the current administration has failed to offer direction for the country and address the suffering of Malawians.

“We said it in Mangochi that Malawians are suffering. Prices of commodities have risen and now the government is bringing laws that people should be paying tax upfront when importing things.

“We voted for multiparty democracy in 1993; so, nobody should think of intimidating us when we speak. In fact I cannot be intimidated,” he said.

MRA spokesperson Steven Kapoloma confirmed the development. He said the activity was in connection with suspicion of tax evasion on the part of Mchacha.

“We can confirm that we conducted a search at Honourable Mchacha’s companies because there is a suspicion of tax evasion. We collected some documents which we will examine to see if, indeed, there is an offence.

“The Authority received a tip alleging tax evasion offences relating to (1) non-issuance of EFD receipts as a way of evading VAT, (2) Under declaration of income tax and (3) failure to charge and remit withholding taxes. The authority obtained a search warrant, conducted the search and some documents have been collected for analysis to determine whether the allegations are true or not,” he said.

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