KRA Bags Sh11 Bn From Tax Disputes

The Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) Tax Appeals Tribunal has resolved 23 long running tax disputes, bagging in Sh11 billion at at time when the taxman is ramping up efforts to increase the revenue collected.

The newly constituted tribunal cleared the disputes on December 17th and 18th last year. “To date, the tribunal has heard 112 appeals, which are pending delivery of judgements,” said KRA in a statement yesterday. “The appeals entail disputed tax amounting to Sh53.6 billion whose judgements are expected to be delivered soon.”

The disputes covered major economic sectors, including manufacturing, insurance, banking, construction, betting, agriculture, packaging and storage. The disputes were mainly on withholding income tax, tax on winnings from lotteries and betting, customs under-declaration on values of imports, as well as corporation tax and Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

The taxman is also looking to bag another Sh15 billion by charging 600 suspected tax cheats by June this year, this will mostly be through plea bargains in exchange for amnesty.

Some of the big names that have been on KRA’s radar as the authority upped the ante in the hunt for tax revenue are billionaire businessman Humphrey Kariuki and Keroche Breweries boss Tabitha Karanja.

Humphrey Kariuki is charged with nine counts nine counts relating to tax evasion amounting to Sh41 billion while Tabitha And Joseph Karanja are wanted over Sh14B Keroche’s tax evasion.

“We have a 94 pc success rate on these cases, and we want all our cases publicised,” Edward Karanja, KRA’s head of tax investigations stated at a briefing on the authority’s annual revenue performance in Nairobi.