NamRa tax fraud losses jump to N$833m from N$136m in January

By Kaipaherue Kandjii

THE Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) says it has lodged 56 cases with the Namibian Police against culprits, including internal staff members purported to be kingpins in a fraudulent tax refund syndicate.

In a surprising twist, the agency exclusively disclosed to Confidente that it has lost N$833 million in such fraudulent claims, a significant surge from a paltry N$136 million, initially detected in January this year.

Its spokesperson, Yarukeekuro Ndorokaze, emphasized that only a mere N$19,9 million has since been recovered after what he characterized as “intensive recovery interventions,” which includes deductions from pension pay-outs and salaries of culprits.

“In line with our commitment to accountability, we have issued 322 demand letters to the implicated taxpayers. According to section 91 of the Income Tax Act No. 24 of 1981, 302 Notice to agents have been issued, amounting to N$55 million,” Ndorokaze said.

In March 2022, the agency started investigations after discovering fraudulent claims that in refunds to underserving recipients through fraud and manipulation of the system by, amongst others, manipulating individual taxpayers’ profiles to the provisional status of farmers by mostly taxpayers’ representatives or bookkeepers, which is associated with taxpayers earning an income from sources additional to their employment such as farming.

Subsequently, the revised returns would be submitted with inflated deductions, resulting in tax refunds due to the alleged affected taxpayer.

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