Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: KenyanPlato on August 20, 2017, 02:57:08 PM
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http://www.nation.co.ke/news/IEBC-deputy-presiding-officer-found-murdered--/1056-4063892-xa2gh7z/index.html
In May 2016, KRA released a list of 124 cars with questionable importation details. They were among thousands of vehicles smuggled into the country without paying duty. A registration lapse had given cartels freedom to import mostly high-end vehicles and evade tax.
One of the vehicles belonging to a prominent politician had evaded Sh6.5 million in charges. The Range Rover was registered as an Isuzu truck.
KRA later told Smart Company that the owners and details of the vehicles had been identified. Four months later, only 12 vehicles have been presented for audit and the rest remain at large.
Recently the media revealed two cars sharing a number plate at a Nairobi Police station (an obvious sign of evaded tax). But apparently KRA never gave the issue the seriousness it deserves. The smuggled vehicles alone could have earned KRA over Sh1 billion.
A senior tax expert based in Nairobi blamed the taxman’s complacency on corruption among the officials who he said are heavily compromised to turn a blind eye on gaping revenue loopholes.
“It is corruption that is hurting KRA. How can you explain that these goods still slip through them at the port with all the pre-verification measures and scanners upgrade done?
Show me one poor KRA customs official and we can bet over it. I wonder what happened to the lifestyle audit that was ordered last year. As long as no one is being pursued, these targets will never be met,” the expert said adding that no one can precisely ascertain how much KRA collects.
KRA’s staff lifestyle audit was targeted at 70 top managers but left out junior officers who are said to be driving the heavy revenue haemorrhage in collusion with unscrupulous dealers at the ports of entry.
Between February and May alone, KRA acted upon 12 junior staff implicated in the tax evasion web bleeding billions of shillings in revenue. Eight of them, mostly from the customs department, were arraigned in court.
With the glaring leakages related to big payers, KRA’s Vision 2018 targets to raise the number of active taxpayers to 4 million. Currently, only 3 million out of the 8.1 million in the Personal Identification Number (PIN) database are active.