East African Business Week (Kampala)
Cedric Lumiti
14 April 2008
Nairobi — Kenyan taxpayers will soon be filling their tax returns online. This is a regional first which the taxman says will improve revenue collection and efficiency.
The programme, scheduled to start next year, will also see the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) cast wide its taxation net and increase tax profit in what is poised to be a killer blow to tax evaders.
The new technology, referred to as the Integrated Tax Management System (ITMS), is being undertaken by experts from Chile, contracted by the Kenyan government under a government to government arrangement. It kicked off last November and is expected to be up and running by June next year.
A Chilean based firm, Servicio de Impuestos (SII) will provide the technical infrastructure and back-up services.
The KRA Commissioner General, Mr. Michael Waweru, says the technology will compliment the Simba system that was launched in 2005 to automate domestic tax payments.
"Our continuous automation and modernization programme is aimed at increasing the tax bracket and will see an improvement in efficiency. We expect maximum returns if the performance of the Electronic Tax Registers (ETR) and the simba system are anything to go by," said Waweru.
Apart from increased efficiency, the successful implementation of the programme will see payment of taxes hastened and done in a record short time to counter the long queus that currently characterize the Times Tower where KRA is based.
The general automation of tax payments and related activities will also minimize human contact at KRA and drastically reduce the amount of corruption and middle men that has been rampant at the institution.
Taxpayers will also benefit from easy access to information and improved data management in a system that will be running day and night. This will also come with improved data security.
The technology to be implemented in three phases has already the first phase that involved the business analysis and documentation complete. The second that kicked off last February phase will involve system analysis and design and will be complete by July this year. The third and final phase of the system automation and modernization will herald the implementation of the plan and will start in March next year.
Under the arrangement, a computer code with a KRA portal will be developed to cater for the system where processes such as e-registration, e-filing, e-payment and enquiries will be done at the click of a button. Stage two of the third phase will address database platform, tax compliance, monitoring, audit and other complex issues. The technology will offer a tailor made tax management system for Kenya in line with respected countries in tax management such as Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America.
"The quest to improve this system has been on for quite some time and has entailed a search for solutions in collaboration with those tax administrations we consider to embrace best practices," said Waweru.
Chile is considered one of the countries with the best and most advanced ICT tax systems in the world.
Waweru said the concentration on ICT development was part of the grand reform programme aimed at increasing revenue collection in the country to reduce over reliance on donors.
In this context, we are determined to further deepen our tax reforms to ensure that we contribute effectively towards the achievement of the national Vision 2030 and liberate our country from external financial dependency," he said.
This year, despite the political interruptions dogging the country, the taxman projects to raise some KSh420 billion up from the Ksh360 billion successfully collected during the last financial year.
"With these programmes in place we expect to surpass our revenue target and realize more collections as this is the only way we can tame over reliance on donors. We look forward to our political leaders to find an amicable settlement to the current stalemate," he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 East African Business Week. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
