ZOMBA-(MaraviPost)-The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) on Thursday confiscated documents from political scientist Boniface Dulani’s office in Zomba, over taxes evasion, it has been learnt.
Dulani’s invading comes barely a few days after Afrobarometer Report, which he authored together with Professor Happy Kayuni, released a report that reveals the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, is losing popularity.
Dulani heads the Institute of Public Opinion and Research at Chancellor College, a constituent of the University of Malawi.
The findings have not been warmly received by President Mutharika, who bashed Dulani and Kayuni at a rally in Mangochi last Friday.
The President said the authors of the survey had surveyed flies and not Malawians.
In a post on Twitter at 14:00 hours on Thursday, one of the survey authors, Dulani, tweeted: “A few days after President Peter Mutharika accused us of surveying flies, we have seven visitors from MRA with warrant saying we’a (sic) evading taxes,”.
The twitter was accompanied by a picture of a search warrant issued by the Chief Resident Magistrate for the South.
On Friday the MRA Head of Corporate Affairs Steve Kapoloma, justified the action arguing that it was the institution’s normal operation to invade suspected tax-evasion regardless of the individual’s status in the society.
Kapoloma said there were reports that Dulani’s institution had been failing to remit “pay as you earn taxes” (PAYE) tax.
He therefore, ruled out any politics being involved in the matter. The MRA official furthermore said the truth will be known after officers analyze the documents the MRA officers obtained from Dulani’s office.
But analysts have critiqued MRA’s action of pouncing on those people deemed to be critical of the current Administration; many observers say the acts was tantamount to counter to principles of democracy.
