Nairobi — Businesses in Eastleigh are under renewed pressure to adopt the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), as authorities tighten enforcement to boost tax compliance.

The directive targets full adoption of real-time electronic invoicing across the busy trading hub, with traders required to issue receipts through the digital system or risk penalties.

Introduced in 2023, eTIMS is an upgrade of earlier tax systems aimed at sealing revenue leakages by ensuring transactions are digitally recorded and transmitted instantly to KRA systems.

Despite onboarding over 500,000 taxpayers by late 2025, compliance remains uneven, particularly among informal and mid-sized businesses.

Eastleigh Business District Association Chairman Mohammed Adan said traders have until the end of May to comply.

"We have a timeline from now till end of May to comply. If you don't comply, there will be penalties, and that will be a very big burden on our members," he said.

KRA maintains that the system is key to improving audit trails and curbing VAT non-compliance, especially in high-volume commercial zones like Eastleigh, which serves traders from across East and Central Africa.