KRA to Hire 1,000 Spies to Smoke out Wealthy Tax Cheats

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been allocated an additional Sh2 billion to hire 1,000 intelligence and enforcement officers to spy on and arrest wealthy tax evaders.

The National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee on Tuesday asked the Treasury to give KRA an extra Sh2 billion to enable it to hire more officers, Business Daily reported.

The 1,000 officers will be tasked with investigating the source of income of high-net-worth individuals and their expenditure against their tax remittances. Their work will include doing intelligence reports in a bid to recover unpaid taxes.

This is one of the taxman’s moves aimed at netting an additional Sh50 billion in the period ending June next year. The new officers will also be required to carry out an analysis of companies’ financial dealings including those doing business with the government and counties to expose any tax evasion by matching their payments and income declared to KRA.

“Increase Sh2 billion to the Kenya Revenue Authority budget for recruitment of an additional 1,000 officers countrywide in order to generate an additional Sh50 billion in revenue in support of the achievement of this year’s revenue targets,” said the National Assembly committee.

In the past few months, KRA has instituted 78 criminal cases against 152 businesspeople who allegedly owe the taxman more than 50 billion in unpaid taxes.

Among those facing tax evasion charges is billionaire Humprey Kariuki, who is accused of evading taxes amounting to Sh41 billion through his companies WOW Beverages and African Spirits Limited. Others are Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja and her husband Joseph Karanja, who are alleged to have evaded taxes totaling Sh14 billion through the beer giant.