Anthony Mwaura, the board chairman of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), has stated that his team has started to clean up the tax collector.
Before the year was up, Mwaura planned to professionalize the revenue authority. He said that KRA achieved its goal for the previous month and that they anticipate posting a surplus before the end of the fiscal year. Mwaura said he was keen to have employees who are determined to help President William Ruto’s government collect taxes and not looking at where to steal.
“We have rogue employees working for KRA; they have done more to benefit themselves than to assist the authorities in collecting taxes. We have started kicking them out because we want a team that is focused and driven to meet our goals, Mwaura added.
He refuted allegations that the KRA had undercollected taxes and that this was the cause of the delay in paying salaries to civil officials in the federal and local governments.
“Last month, despite gasoline shortages, we received Sh172 billion as opposed to the Sh173 billion target, achieving 98 percent of our goal. We will surpass the Sh250 billion goal by June and meet the aim for this month. Our yearly goal is Sh2.274 trillion, and we are optimistic about reaching it.
The debt that was carried over from the previous administration has reached maturity, according to deputy president Rigathi Gachagua, who urged immediate action.
“I have to admit that there have been delays in our staff salaries as well as our payments to the counties. But one of the loans we inherited had become due, so we had to make a payment “explained he.
He claimed that the government was obligated to make the payment but expressed confidence that the salaries will be paid this next week. The Standard was informed by sources within the taxman that there was unease regarding the management and how it was running. They observed that the Kenya Revenue Authority’s purge had damaged employee morale and disrupted efforts to raise domestic income.
“A Tax Administration must be carefully and laboriously put together in order to function properly and efficiently, yet all it takes is one poor choice to cause it to become unstable. It appears that one poor judgment, which sent the wrong signals to the entire tax administration system, is what caused the current issue at KRA “a insider stated.
He pointed out that in order to make changes at the revenue agency, the board would need to first decide what needed to be changed for strategic reasons, take action fast to implement the changes, and then wait for the organization to recover from the shock and settle down.