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Kenyans with IDs should have KRA Pin numbers – Ruto says in bid to increase tax revenue

Friday, October 28th, 2022 17:02 | By
Ruto
President William Ruto at a past event. PHOTO/Courtesy

President William Ruto now says that each Kenyan citizen who has a national identity card should have a Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) pin.

Speaking during the annual Taxpayers' month at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on Friday, October 28, 2022, the Head of State affirmed that the move would help maximize revenue collection.

"There are only 7 million people with KRA pin numbers. In the same economy, Safaricom's MPESA has 30 million registered customers who transact billions daily. The fact that this opportunity remains unclear to KRA demonstrates why radical changes are necessary. Every Kenyan with an ID should have a KRA pin number," he stated.

Ruto additionally stated that the tax agency must stop overtaxing trade and undertaking the wealthy.

"KRA must also reflect equity by shifting from the overtaxing of trade to the undertaxing of wealth to enable the wealthy to bear an appropriate burden. We shall tax wealth, consumption, income and trade in that order," he stated.

The president further urged the taxman to increase its current collections within the next five years so as to meet its target of Ksh3 trillion within the next financial year.

He additionally highlighted that his administration was prepared to implement changes at the agency to maximize efficient and effective tax collection.

“We should be able to collect enough money. Our Growth Domestic Product (GDP) has risen Ksh12 trillion yet KRA only raised about 14 percent of GDP in revenues last year. In the past, KRA was able to raise 18 percent of GDP. If we collect the same target today, we would have raised an extra 4 hundred billion shillings. In that case, I expect KRA to collect 3 trillion in the next financial year,” the head of state said.

He added: “We are determined to effect decisive changes in order to reverse this unsatisfactory state of affairs. The practice of citizen harassment as a means of tax administration is unacceptable. In the past, revenue collection registered noticeable growth. This was a result of an effective national mobilization strategy,”

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