•Taxman keen to rid the market of illicit goods and promote fare trade.
•The war on illicit trade coupled with investment in technology has helped drive up revenue collections.
Image: COURTESY
Kenya Revenue Authority has heightened surveillance on illicit trade involving use of counterfeit excise stamps.
This is in a move to rid the market of illicit goods and promote fare trade as well as protect the public from consuming harmful products.
“KRA is committed to ensuring that trade operations are only carried out by traders who abide by the laid down legislations and tax police,” Commissioner investigations and enforcement, Edward Karanja, said in a statement.
The taxman is also implementing a number of revenue enhancement measures.
These include tax base expansion, enhancement of debt recovery programme, implementation of post clearance audits, comprehensive audit of all exemptions and enhanced scanning and intelligence led verification of cargo at the ports of entry and internally.
It is also reaching out to taxpayers with tax disputes to embrace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for faster resolution.
The authority has been aggressive in sealing tax leaks as it continues to record month-on-month growth in revenue collections, also supported by investment in technology.
Last month, it collected Sh176.6 billion against the month's target of Sh170.1 billion, implying a surplus of Sh6.4 billion.
The Authority registered 23.9 per cent revenue growth compared to Sh144.06 billion collected in the same month last year, even as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on the economy.
This was the fifth successive month that KRA posted an improved and above target performance since December 2020.
According to Commissioner General Githii Mburu, the good revenue performance has been enhanced by the sustained implementation of compliance efforts, revenue enhancement initiatives and improved service delivery to taxpayers, which has led to improved voluntary compliance.
“Additionally, the remarkable performance is also attributed to enhanced active surveillance and enforcement, which has been supported by KRA’s investment in technology," Githii added.
This includes integrated scanners, which have improved levels of compliance at the border points by plugging revenue leakage points.
April was the fifth month running that the customs and border control department continued to record good performance, achieving a performance rate of 112.1 per cent with a revenue collection of Sh53.996 billion, against a target of Sh48.150 billion.
Domestic taxes registered a notable performance rate of 100.2 per cent after collecting Sh122.236 billion against the April 2021 revenue collection target of Sh121.615 billion.
“Domestic Taxes performance was largely attributed to the excellent performance recorded by corporation tax, which registered a performance rate of 116.9 per cent,” the taxman notes in his latest revenue performance update.
Corporation tax collection during the month stood at Sh39.945 billion against a target of Sh34.181 billion.
PAYE registered a growth of 5.3 per cent as collections for the month stood at Sh36.9billion.
Withholding income tax surpassed the April 2021 target as KRA collected a surplus of Sh1.5 billion. This is after registering a collection of Sh12.1 billion.
The excise domestic tax collection amounted to Sh4.966 billion, exceeding the target by Sh311 million.
The Authority remains positive on revenue performance following the projected expansion of
the economy by above six per cent over the medium term, compared to 0.6 per cent projected in 2020 (according to Budget Policy Statement 2021).