In a controversial auction that left members of Rwigara family discontented, the court bailiff, Védaste Habimana sold the tobacco at Rwf512 million. The tobacco was bought by Murado Business LTD.
Of the Rwf6 billion the government wants to recover from the Rwigaras, about Rwf5.5 billion is still needed.
Speaking to IGIHE yesterday about the next to be done for government to recover the taxes, RRA Commissioner General, Richard Tusabe said that they will auction more Rwigara properties.
“If the money is not enough, we should seek where to get it. We shall get it from other properties,” he said.
At the tobacco auction yesterday, the Rwigara family was not contented with the value that was given to their properties. They said that the tobacco had a value of around Rwf1 billion.
The family rejected the offer and said that the auction was conducted illegally.
However, Tusabe emphasized that no law was violated in conducting the auction.
“Nothing we can do without following Rwandan laws; everything was done clearly, no procedure was ignored and no law was violated. Nothing that can prove that we violated laws,” he said.
Asked whether it was possible to suspend the auction as stated by laws when property owner is not satisfied with the value at the first day, Tusabe replied; “Let’s do our work, isn’t it?”
Yesterday Rwigara’s daughter, Anne Rwigara who is also the family’s businesses representative requested the court bailiff to stop the auction, but the court bailiff told her to go to court if they were not satisfied.
Auctioned yesterday are the stocks o tobacco that had been seized last year.
The auctioned stocks include different types of tobacco such as Premier Filter (5553 cartons); Filter Star (1033 cartons); Filter Star King (328 cartons); Premier Super Menthol (191cartons) and Filter Star Soft (90 cartons). Each carton contains 5000 pieces of tobacco making a total of over 35 million pieces.
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