Equity Group

half-year net profit has tumbled by 24.3 percent to Sh9.02 billion after the lender increased provisioning for loan defaults by nearly nine times to reflect the Covid-19 triggered economic difficulties facing borrowers.

The lender said on Tuesday that net profit for the six months to June has retreated from Sh11.92 billion posted in a similar period last year.

The fall in profit was despite net interest income growing by 16.9 percent to Sh24.6 billion as the lender’s loan book expanded by Sh70.7 billion or 22 percent to Sh391.6 billion.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) suffered a blow in its pursuit of Sh619.16 million in excise tax from Cooperative Bank of Kenya after a tribunal barred the taxman from collecting the money.

The Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) stopped the taxman from enforcing the order until Co-op Bank’s appeal against tax demands for the transactions made in 2013, 2014 and 2015 is heard and determined.

The tribunal dismissed KRA’s bid to quash Co-Op Bank’s appeal saying that the taxman relied on ambiguous clauses on definition of ‘interest, fees and commissions’ to demand the arrears.