KRA under pressure to collect Ksh.70bn

The Kenya Revenue Authority has been tasked with collecting Sh70 billion over the next three and a half months to meet the budget deficit.

The target set by the National Treasury comes as the government comes under pressure to finance its budget following slow revenue collection in 2017.

Treasury cabinet secretary Henry Rotich says treasury officials will closely monitor KRA operations to ensure its sealing loopholes to maximize collections.

Rotich said stern action would be taken on KRA officials found to be lax in their operations.

“I will personally be visiting some of these collection points to see what’s happening, those who slept on their jobs will face the full wrath of the national treasury,” Mr Rotich told reporters on Friday.

Last week, Mr Rotich announced that the treasury had been forced to make deep budget cuts following a revenue shortfall of Sh84 billion after KRA missed its collection targets.

To meet its obligations, the Treasury proposed trimming of county allocations by up to Sh18 billion as well re appropriating government spending.

Mr Rotich appealed to Parliament to make the requisite approvals.

“The National Treasury stance on austerity measures remains. Budgets must be cut and no one will be spared. Even then parliament has the last say on these proposals,” he said.

KRA collected Sh630.37 billion between July and December.

The taxman has a target to collect Sh1.4 trillion by the end of June.

Last week KRA was dealt a blow after the High Court declared the planned levying of excise duty on bottled water, juices, soda, other non-alcoholic beverages and cosmetics as unconstitutional.

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National Treasury KRA Henry Rotich elections budget deficit revenue collection economic slowdown

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