KRA in Pursuit of 600 Individuals Involved in Tax Evasion Crimes

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced that it will go after 600 individuals who are involved in tax evasions in its next financial year 2019/2020.

The taxman says it has concrete evidence that will help indict 600 individuals who were involved in tax crimes and is sure of recovering at least 95 percent of lost revenue.

Last year, the tax collector prosecuted 222 individuals on tax evasion related crimes but the number is set to inflate to more than double this year.

“We have shifted focus in 2019 and have watertight cases targeting up to 600 individuals, these are cases which are properly investigated and we are sure that we will get over 94 percent success rate,” KRA said

According to KRA Deputy Commissioner for Investigation and Enforcement Edward Karanja, the taxman has adopted a digital mechanism that will automatically detect tax cheats.

In the last financial year, KRA recovered 12.9 billion from 222 tax evaders,12.6 billion shillings from 210 other tax-related cases, and 9 billion shillings recovered from strategic operations where KRA was part of a multi-agency team against illicit trade of contraband.

For the 2019/2020 financial year, the taxman will get leads from; informers, referrals and other agencies and through reports from the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee to improve its tax collection activities.

In the recently completed financial year 2018/2019, KRA managed to make an improvement on tax collection as it collected 1.58 trillion shillings of revenue as compared to the previous year where it collected 1.43 trillion.

KRA has a 1.8 target to beat in the 2019/2020 fiscal year, which was set by the National Treasury in the last budget allocation.

The revenue collection had dropped in recent days which the taxman blames on tax evaders, dismissal by the court and collusion of taxpayers with KRA officials. A combination of structural and administrative issues has also caused revenue/GDP (gross domestic product) to stagnate in recent years.

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