The Public Accounts Committee is refusing to let the Amaryllis Hotel saga fade, escalating its probe by summoning the Malawi Revenue Authority over what could be one of the most glaring gaps in the controversial transaction--a missing tax clearance reportedly worth around K90 billion.
Committee chairperson Steve Malondera says the latest move is driven by inconsistencies emerging from testimonies already placed before the committee, particularly from FDH Bank Plc and the Financial Intelligence Authority. Those submissions raised the possibility that tax obligations may have been factored into the transaction--but without any visible proof.
"We are talking of tax clearance in the region of K90 billion. That is a substantial amount," Malondera said, underscoring the scale of what is now at stake.
That figure alone has sharpened the stakes of the investigation. Because at the centre of the deal--the sale of Amaryllis Hotel--is not just a question of ownership or financing, but whether the State may have been bypassed or kept in the dark on a massive tax component tied to the transaction.
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Testimony from FDH Bank has only deepened the uncertainty. The bank confirmed it processed funds from the Public Service Pension Trust Fund to Yusuf Investment Limited, but crucially indicated that the structure of payments did not clearly align with what would be expected in a tax-compliant transaction. FDH's head of Treasury and Investment Banking, Esnat Suleman, told the committee the bank acted on instructions that did not explicitly define the payment as a staged 30 percent tranche linked to tax clearance.
Yet the underlying agreement reportedly paints a different picture. Signed on November 27, 2025, the deal provided for an initial 40 percent payment within 14 days, followed by a further 30 percent only after issuance of a tax clearance certificate. That certificate--central to unlocking the next phase of payment--is precisely what PAC now says it has not seen.
The implication is stark: either the tax clearance exists and has not been disclosed, or it does not exist at all--raising the possibility that billions in tax obligations may have been sidestepped, deferred, or obscured.
PAC had initially concluded its inquiry and compiled a report, but that process was abruptly halted after objections from government and other stakeholders who argued that key figures--including former Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba and Yusuf Investment Limited--had not been given a chance to be heard.
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The committee has since reopened the investigation, a move that now appears less like procedural fairness and more like a second chance to confront unresolved and uncomfortable questions.
At the centre of it all is MRA. Its forthcoming appearance before PAC is expected to answer a simple but critical question: did the tax authority issue, verify, or even sight a tax clearance certificate tied to this deal--and if so, where is it?
Because without that clarity, the Amaryllis transaction risks being seen not just as a controversial investment, but as a deal where transparency collapsed at the exact point where public interest was highest.
PAC's latest move signals that the matter is far from over. If anything, the pressure is building--and this time, the focus is squarely on whether the State's tax system itself was bypassed in a deal involving tens of billions of kwacha.
