Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini wants tax defaulters to be blacklisted by Credit Reference Bureau, a move set to streamline revenue collection process from uncooperative taxpayers.
KRA is lagging behind its revenue collection schedule for its current financial year by Sh55 billion and it might not achieve the overall target by up to Sh110 billion. Failure to hit hard on non compliant taxpayers will ebb revenue collection and more than double up last years deficit.
In a Parliamentary Finance Committee, Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General John Njiraini said that most of its revenue is held in debt and a legal framework on blacklisting defaulters will support in debt collection from ‘hard core’ debtors and improve tax revenue yields.
“We propose CRB listing of non-complaint taxpayers will be based on criteria that would be fair and equitable to all taxpayers,’’ Njiraini said.
As at last year, KRA had collected Sh1.37 trillion against a target of Sh1.415 trillion. Njiraini noted that his office has been struggling to meet the revenue targets set by the National treasury due to poor funding that has stalled for the last five years.
The revenue collector also proposed to raise excise duty on betting by 10 per cent to 25 per, after giving in to pressure from betting firms to cut gaming tax from 35 per cent of revenue to the current 15 per cent last year. As for the business operators, the revenue collector wants to ease the tax burden on Value Added Tax to Sh0.96 per Sh100.
The need to access to third-party information in handling the current legal framework on sharing tax-related information to persuade compliance saw KRA request Central Bank of Kenya to direct banks to demand Personal Identification Number (PIN) certificate before registering clients and Mobile Money Company Safaricom to ask for KRA pins from those seeking to use Paybill.
