Kenya’s tax revenues hit 2.031 trillion shillings (about 17.19 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2021/2022 fiscal year ended on June 30 as compared to 14.14 billion dollars collected in the previous financial year, the country’s tax agency said Thursday.
James Githii Mburu, the commissioner-general of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), said that the performance is consistent with the prevailing economic indicators, especially the projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.9 percent in the 2021/2022 financial year.
Photo taken on Dec. 10, 2018 shows a Coil transport train of the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). (Xinhua)
“The performance is further anchored on the ongoing transformation at the authority including the implementation of a high-performance culture with stringent performance accountability as well as strict enforcement of tax laws in the fight against tax evasion,” Mburu said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
During the past fiscal year, he said that it collected domestic taxes amounting to 10.98 billion dollars while customs revenue performance stood at 6.17 billion dollars.
Mburu also said that the excellent revenue performance is attributed to the implementation of key strategies as enshrined in KRA’s 8th corporate plan, tax policy measures and enhanced revenue administration.
The tax agency noted that it also continued to employ technological strategies to help seal revenue loopholes.
“One of the strategies KRA has employed is the web-based system, iWhistle. The system allows the public to unanimously report corruption to KRA. This has enabled the authority to gather corruption and tax evasion-related information from the public while concealing the anonymity of the reporters,” Mburu said.
He added that the extensive use of data and intelligence to unearth unpaid taxes also led to improved voluntary compliance and tax base expansion which is aimed at boarding taxpayers previously not paying their fair share of taxes.
Xinhua