Nairobi — President William Ruto has proposed renaming the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to the Kenya Revenue Service (KRS) to make the taxman people friendly.
President Ruto said Thursday during the official opening of the 13th Parliament that the move will help transform the agency that is charged with the assessment, collection, and accounting of all government revenues.
"We will also work with the Kenya Revenue Authority on a culture change to make it a people-friendly, customer-centric organization. I am of the view that we should rename it the Kenya Revenue Service in line with the proposed transformation," he said.
The Head of State went on to emphasize his government's commitment to ensure that the country's tax system is responsive to the needs of the economy.
President Ruto said that the taxing structure should be equitable, efficient, and customer friendly arguing that the current "tax regime currently falls far short of this."
"The economic principles of equitable taxation require that the tax burden reflects the ability to pay. This is best achieved by a hierarchy that taxes wealth, consumption, income, and trade in that order of preference," Ruto stated.
The Head of State said that at the moment the taxman is over-taxing trade and under-taxing wealth hence the need for reforms.
"We will be proposing tax measures that begin to move us in the right direction," he said.
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In July 2022, KRA announced it had for the first time in Kenya's history hit and surpassed the Sh2 trillion revenue collection mark, defying the difficult economic environment brought about by Covid-19.
Revenue collection in the financial year 2021/22, which ended on June 30, reached a new record of Sh2.031trillion compared to Sh1.669 trillion collected in the financial year 2020/21.
The Authority surpassed the original target of Sh1.882 trillion and two other upward revenue target revisions of Sh1.911 trillion, which was later revised to Sh1.976 trillion.
"This is the first time the Authority has surpassed its original target in 14 years (since FY 2007/08), after the previous target revisions were adjusted downwards," KRA Commissioner General, Githii Mburu said at the time.
The record represented a performance rate of 102.8 per cent against the revised target and revenue growth of 21.7 per cent compared to the previous financial year.
The agency noted revenue collection almost tripled in 11 years from Sh707.36 Billion in FY2011/12 representing a growth of 187.1 per cent.
KRA is also mandated to collect revenue on behalf of other government agencies mainly at the ports of entry. These include Road Maintenance Levy, Airport Revenue, Aviation Revenue and Petroleum Development Fund.
During the financial year ending June 30, KRA collected Sh131.479 billion on behalf of the agencies reflecting a growth of 5.1 per cent compared to the previous financial year.
