By Watchdog reporter
On Tuesday, we narrated to you the ongoing fraud in Cable Corporation and Mehta Group; owners of Lugazi Sugar factory, the third biggest sugar maker in the country which has caused Uganda as a country to lose billions of shillings.
The Mehta Group of Companies is a conglomerate based in Mumbai, India, but run subsidiaries in Uganda as well as United States, Canada, and Kenya.
According to our sources, Cable Corporation and Mehta Group are literally engulfed with illegal activities such as employing ghost workers, fake and high price purchases, fake productions, fake billing, and human trafficking among others.
It is stated that these activities are spearheaded by the company’s high officers such as the Chief Executive Officer, General Manager and some Uganda government officers.
Among the highly traded products are copper and aluminum.
Our source said copper is being sold based on London metal exchange (LME) prices with 5-10% premium and here Cable Corporation purchases at 40% premium which can be proved by incoming custom bills.
The purchased copper is usually bought through Indian export merchant who gives balance in cash to cable corp. owners in India.
In this way Cable Corporation is able to show low profits hence less tax is paid to the Uganda government.
Apparently, all copper, aluminum and machinery which the companies are buying are exempted from custom duty
In 2016, Mehta Group and Cable Corp. did a huge false invoicing of more than shs1billion which was done to various government and private customers like Civil Aviation Authority.
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