Government has now resolved to combing through business Paybill and Till numbers to collect more revenues from traders.
Yesterday, the State made this official announcement saying plans to link Mpesa Paybills to the electronic tax registers ETR was in top gear.
Therefore, traders and businesses using Paybills will soon be integrated with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax systems and anything collected through the platform taxed, immediately.
Speaking during the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Summit 2024 held at Safari Park Hotel on Wednesday, October 9, Senior Economic Advisor Moses Kuria revealed that there are only 200,000 ETRs and boosting the number with digital payment players will increase the tax base.
Kuria also noted that plans are underway to integrate all Paybills by December 25, 2024.
“We have decided that there will be nowhere to hide for anybody at zero option. Digital payment in the Kenyan economy is at another level envied by other countries.
“If you compile mobile money, banks and all other players in digital payment, you will get about 2 million of them. This speaks to the huge opportunity that I call the early harvest of digitising our revenue framework. That is what we are going to do. Come Christmas, all Paybills will also be virtual ETRs for the purposes of KRA,” said Kuria.
Moses Kuria added that the economic council members agreed with KRA Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga on integrating the Paybills.
Treasury CS, John Mbadi, on his behalf, said he will be working closely with KRA in November to address a few outstanding issues.
He said, iTax needs an overhaul. He said iCMS needs an overhaul because there is too much revenue leakages·
The Treasury boss also added that KRA’s budget for 2025/26 will be increased to 30.0% to boost staff welfare·
The CS further noted that Kenya needs to address gaps in collection of rental income tax. GOK data shows it can rake in Ksh 100.0 billion annually.
