Police in Dedza have arrested Charles Chimwendo, 32, an employee of Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) based at Domestic Taxes Station in Dedza for allegedly stealing MK12 million by issuing fake receipts to businesses.
Dedza Police Deputy Publicist Sergeant Cassim Manda said Chimwendo was allegedly in unauthorized custody of various revenue receipt books and he was issuing those receipts upon collection of revenue from unsuspecting taxpayers.
The scam came to light when his superiors through Msonkho online platform noticed that a certain filling station (name withheld) had not remitted Provisional tax. The M.R.A. officials confronted the filling station management who revealed that Chimwendo had already collected the money.
A close inspection of the general receipt that was issued by the suspect, identified it as fake.
This eye opening incident prompted Chimwendo’s workmates to revisit the previous data of the year 2021.
Later, it was discovered that another trader (name withheld) had also not remitted payment towards the submitted Value Added Tax (VAT) return for the month of June 2021.
The trader also produced a receipt fraudulently issued by the suspect at Dedza Domestic Taxes Station.
Chimwendo is expected to answer the charges of Forgery and Theft by servant respectively.
The Police investigation team says the swindled amount of MK12 million is pegged after preliminary investigation. However, the amount could rise further since some duplicate receipt leaves have been deliberately removed by Chimwendo from the receipt books, whose amount will be ascertained.
The suspect Charles Chimwendo comes from Chimwendo village in the area of Traditional Authority Mzukuzuku in Mzimba district.
