The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) Thursday confiscated documents from offices of the Institute of Public Opinion and Research, which is headed by Boniface Dulani, for allegedly failing to remit pay as you earn taxes and others.
When The Daily Times sought a reaction from Dulani, he referred the matter to his colleague, Professor Happy Kayuni of Chancellor College, who confirmed the development.
Kayuni said he did not have more information but he had received reports that MRA officials had searched the premises of the Institute in Zomba.
“I am not sure if the institution has been sealed off, but I understand MRA officials invaded the premises with a warrant for searching documentation and, yes, they took away lots of documents. That is what I am told but they did not invade my office because I am at the Chancellor College right now,” said Kayuni.
In a post on Twitter at 2pm yesterday, Dulani wrote “A few days after the President [Peter Mutharika] accused [us] of surveying flies, we’ve 7 visitors from @MRA with a warrant saying we’a (sic) evading taxes,” accompanied by a picture of a search warrant issued by the Chief Resident Magistrate for the South.
The development comes hot on the heels of an Afrobarometer report which Dulani and Kayuni released recently which disclosed that the Democratic Progressive Party administration is losing popularity.
The disclosure did not go well with Mutharika who criticised the two at a rally in Mangochi last Saturday, saying they had surveyed flies and not Malawians.
MRA Head of Corporate Affairs Steve Kapoloma declined to comment on the matter, referring us to Henry Mchazime, the authority’s media specialist, who said he was gathering information on the matter; hence, he could not divulge details.
Mchazime promised to revert if he gets anything substantial on the matter, but he had not done so by the time we went to press.
However, an inside source from MRA disclosed that they had received a tip from one of the employees alleging that the institution does not remit taxes deducted from the workers.
“These are normal operations MRA does whenever we suspect that an institution is not paying tax; we go and search. We learnt that the Institute has not been remitting pay as you earn tax, hence we had to go to find out more on the matter. I cannot conclude that the institution has been sealed off but officials went to search,” said the source.
Commenting on the issue, Moses Mkandawire, Executive Director of Church and Society of the Livingstonia Synod, said it is a pity if MRA acted that way in light of the President’s condemnation of the Afrobarometer report.
“I hope MRA has followed procedures in handling this issue but they should have first approached the institution and check if they were not complying. Otherwise, this will be like interfering with academic freedom.
“It will be extremely bad when it comes to the growth of democracy and people would question the credibility of MRA. If indeed the institution was not paying taxes, I believe MRA should have handled the issue in a professional manner than waiting for the President to speak and then act,” explained Mkandawire.
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