KRA turns heat on corrupt staff, tax evaders

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has shifted focus to corrupt officials within its ranks and tax evaders in a new aggressive measures targeted at sealing revenue leaks and growing tax collections.

The new measures come as the taxman is hard pressed to meet revenue targets, a situation that has been partly blamed for a crippling cash crunch that has affected Government operations.

Led by Treasury, the Government will now embark on a lifestyle audit of senior KRA officials and collection agents in a bid to crack down on corrupt officials.

“We have conducted several reforms at KRA in the past, which have resulted in increased revenue collection but there is need to do more and bring the shortfalls within target.

“We will be conducting a lifestyle audit in order to ensure that those who are not doing their work correctly do so,” National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said during KRA’s annual distinguished taxpayer’s awards ceremony held at the KICC yesterday, which was officiated by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The latest initiative is in line with international best practice and Chapter Six of the Constitution. He assured the affected officials that the exercise would be done in the best way and that no one will be victimised.

“We are working with a consultant to strengthen collection of Value Added Tax and customs duty and at the same time strengthening our auditing to capture cases of transfer pricing, large tax payers and wholesale companies,” said Rotich.

Other measures the authorities hope will inprove tax collection include daily audit of clearance of cargo at the port of Mombasa, monitoring the Container Freight System (CFS) to seal loopholes, improving stock management, and installation of CCTV equipment to monitor movement of goods in and out of custom warehouses, especially at night.

Whistle Blowers

Treasury is also encouraging the public and whistleblowers to report on corrupt or unscrupulous officials through a hot line that will be set up next week.

Rotich said such information would be treated confidentially. In addition to this, Kenyans and visitors flying into the country from foreign destinations might have to declare goods in their checked-in luggage as part of the efforts to seal revenue loopholes.

“We want to install passenger scanning equipment at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) over the next four months, which will change the way we scan goods coming in the country,” said Mr John Njiraini.

Currently, the KRA demands that passengers flying into the country with goods meant for economic activity declared and duty paid for the same unless in specific cases of exemptions.

Enforcement has, however, been difficult particularly in cases where passengers keep the goods inside their checked in luggage. At the same time, passengers have also complained of harassment by KRA custom officials at JKIA who use the guise of enforcing the law to extort bribes.

“We expect automation to bring about more transparency at the Customs and boost operations moving into the future and we have prioritised the replacement of the Simba system once a pending court case is resolved,” said Njiraini.