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{
    "id": 1082640,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1082640/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 53,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Roysambu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Isaac Ndirangu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2701,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Waihenya Ndirangu",
        "slug": "isaac-waihenya-ndirangu"
    },
    "content": "The main objective of KRA was to streamline public revenue collection function by bringing the relevant agencies under the umbrella of a central revenue agency under the Ministry of Finance. The Board and management of KRA have since its inception spent time and resources setting up systems, procedures and adoption of new strategies aimed at enhancing operational efficiency of the Authority’s processes. In particular, the functions of KRA are to assess, collect and account for all revenues in accordance with the specified provisions of all revenue collection laws. The Authority is also mandated to give advice on all matters relating to administration and collection of revenue under specified provisions of all revenue collection laws. The Authority also performs such other functions related to revenue as the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury may direct. In fulfilling its mandate, KRA administers 17 revenue Acts, which Members of this House are familiar with. The Acts include VAT Act, EAC Customs Management Act, Income Tax Act, Customs and Excise Act and Traffic Act. KRA has continued to enlarge in size as well as the scope of its operations. Regarding organisation structure, KRA is composed of centralised and decentralised units located across the nation. The centralised units are situated at Times Tower in Nairobi. The jurisdiction of the decentralised units are geographically distributed across the country, in five physical regions; that is, Southern Region, Central Region, Rift Valley Region, Western Region and Northern Region. It is for this reason that KRA has been developing effective ways for revenue collection. The advent of new instruments to help businesses work effectively, affect the ways taxes and revenues are collected. KRA has embarked on extensive implementation of various revenue collection strategies in its operations to significantly enhance revenue collection in all departments, implementation of innovative revenue collection strategies which are supposed to improve its organisational structure, train manpower, planning, developing teamwork among management and staff and to introduce new approaches to reward management and adoption of total quality management. The ability to collect taxes is central to the country’s capacity to finance social services such as health, education, critical infrastructure, electricity, roads and such other public resources. There have been several concerns raised with regard to the challenges affecting revenue efficiency, including rampant corruption involving tax evasion, illegal tax credits and theft of government tax revenue. Therefore, one of the mandates of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning is to investigate, inquire into and report on all matters relating to the mandate and management activities, administration and operations and estimates of the assigned Ministries and Departments. KRA is one of the institutions that we oversight. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the Committee allocated funds as follows to KRA for procurement of revenue enhancement initiatives: Kshs3.3 billion in the Supplementary Budget for the Financial Year 2018/2019 for revenue enhancement initiatives; Kshs3 billion in the Budget Estimates for the Financial Year 2019/2020 to implement the revenue enhancement initiatives that were projected to realise additional revenue of Kshs141 billion. There should be an additional funding of Kshs2 billion in the Supplementary Budget for the Financial Year 2019/2020, for funding of the recruitment of additional 1,000 officers countrywide in order to generate revenue, new additional revenue of Kshs50 billion. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}