KRA shuts down Keroche breweries

Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) has shut down Keroche Breweries over tax non remittance, leaving jobs of over 250 employees in the balance.

The taxman last month shut operations of the Naivasha-based beer manufacturer Over Sh 322 million tax.

According to the taxman, the beer maker defaulted on an agreed tax repayment plan.

While addressing the press at the company's plant, Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja lamented over the taxman move intimating that the company has  exhausted its finances warning that it would be laying off it's staff in the next 7 days if things don't work out.

"The current closure by KRA has drained our resources and unfortunately if nothing is done in the next seven days, we will be forced to drain down all the beer and lay down over 250 direct employees and thousands within our nationwide distribution network,” Ms Karanja said.

Ms. Karanja who appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene in the growing predicament with the taxman, said they have over 2 million liters of beer in the storage tanks worth Sh 512 million which needs Sh 30 million monthly to maintain.

"We have remained closed and yet we have over two million litres of beer worth about Ksh512 million in our storage tanks and which require about Ksh30 million monthly to maintain them,” she stated.

Also in her appeal to the Head of State, the Keroche boss is asking for a 12 month grace period to resume remitting the tax arrears.

The CEO attributed the firm's financial crisis to Covid-19 which saw them scale down major operations due to the containment measures the government had imposed at the height of the pandemic outbreak in the country.

Keroche Breweries enjoys over 20 percent of the beer market share. The company which was incepted in 2004 boost of production of over 30 different beer brands with their popular brand being Summit Larger.