Taaba Ltd Probed On Foreign Dealings

By Emmy Allio A new twist in the investigation of a Pakistani company, Taaba Limited, has indicated that the company gave fake addresses and names of companies in Pakistan from which it claimed to import Boss brand cigarettes.Security sources said Pakistani authorities said two companies allegedly based in pakistan, H.I.S Industries and Ismail Group of Companies, from which Taaba Limited claimed to be getting Boss cigarettes, were nonexistent.“We learnt that Boss cigarettes are manufactured by Fahad Cigarettes Limited owned by Shiraq Akram. This will now help us to open fresh investigations on Taaba Limited,” Ugandan security sources said yesterday.Taaba Limited, with a branch in Sudan, is suspected of having links with terrorist groups and international drug dealers. But the company’s managing director, Kadadi Bizanjo, refuted these allegations. Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Special Revenue Protection Services (SRPS) are probing the company for under-declaring the value of their imports through forged documents.In another development, SRPS yesterday said it suspected URA staff were colluding with businessmen in evading taxes. The sources said URA had already began an internal probe to unveil the racket. Sources said a week ago, the SRPS team impounded six containers of Tigerhead drycells valued at sh420m belonging to Karata Fashions.Karata Fashions is said to have declared two containers and paid a tax of sh29m instead of sh88m.Ends