Tax –Kenya Revenue Authority KRA has dispatched atleast 1,406 newly-trained Revenue Service Assistants RSA to various parts of the country in its efforts to spruce tax compliance.
On Wednesday September 27 evening, various social media platforms were awash with photos of the newly-hired staff busy on the ground doing door-to-door checkups.
A source who has had an encounter with them told Homenews.Co.ke that the RSA officers are entrusted with the task of verifying taxpayer’s information to ensure the accuracy of data and adherence to the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) regulations.
Speaking while appearing before lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndung’u observed that the responsibilities of the new revenue service assistants requires them to have disciplined training and that is the reason they were forced to undergo a two-month long paramilitary training in Eldoret Barracks.
“The service assistants were being trained on technical skills, VAT exercise and paramilitary training for fitness and alertness. Some 1406 recruits were sent to KDF school in Eldoret and two months of training before deployment,” Ndung’u stated.
He also added that the military training would help play a bigger role in keeping them fit and safe on the ground, every day.
“Recruits had to be between 18 and 35 years of age,” details CS Ndungu.
The field assistants will be helping business people with support on filing returns online as well as verification of tax payers’ details.
To know whether the officers are from KRA or not, members of the public have been cautioned to verify the authenticity of assistant’s details through USSD *572#.
