It has emerged that Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) consulted over the readiness of betting firms to comply with the regulations of the government.
In a letter dated June 20, 2019 to the BCLB director, KRA established that there are no discussions between the betting firms and government on tax compliance.
The situation made it hard for the government to allow them to operate after they showed that they were not ready to meet the tax requirements.
KRA reportedly sought BCLB’s stand to determine whether the firms are ready to respond to tax evasion claims but they were not ready for the same.
A senior official at KRA told Senate Committee that the tax agency was not behind the closure of the betting firms.
KRA Commissioner Tomkys Kigen said that the alleged talks between the betting firms and the taxman were untrue.
“However, we note that the licensees have active cases in court where they have sued the authority over tax recovery measures that were taken to recover the outstanding taxes,” Kigen said, as quoted by Standard.
He added: “Currently, there are no ongoing discussions of negotiations between the authority and the listed licensees.”
Last week, Betway resumed operations after complying with tax requirements.
The Pevan’s Limited, which operates as SportPesa failed to resume operations after a High ruled against it in an application for compensation of losses it allegedly suffered after its license was revoked.