KRA To Hire 2,000 New Officers To Investigate Wealthy Tax Cheats

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is set to hire at least 2,000 officers, who will be deployed to investigate wealthy individuals for tax cheats.

The National Treasury has been directed to provide the funds for hiring the officers, even as the taxman struggles to meet its tax targets.

“The National Treasury should allocate additional funds under the supplementary Estimates 1 to employ additional 2,000 staff,” said the Parliament’s Finance and National Planning Committee said in report tabled in Parliament.

Already, the taxman has announced recruitment of senior investigative officers in its investigative and enforcement arm.

Read: KRA Pardons Taxpayers With Penalties Accumulated In The Last Five Years

KRA announced top positions including that of chief manager investigations, manager investigations, assistant manager investigations, assistant manager operations, data analysis and reporting, assistant manager prosecution and supervisor in charge of investigations.

“KRA is seeking result-oriented, self-driven individuals with high integrity to fill the vacant positions,” said KRA.

The new hiring will add to 1,000 officers hired in 2019 using Ksh2 billion. The officers have already identified 1,309 firms that owe KRA Ksh259 billion, the taxman said.

Despite the addition, KRA missed its collection target by Ksh100 billion in the five months to November 2020.

In proposals that are yet to be passed in Parliament, KRA want to have their officials in wealthy companies to monitor production in a bid to curb tax cheats.

In a bid to identify tax cheats, KRA is using import record, bank statements, motor vehicle registration records, water bills, electricity bills and asset ownership information.

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