Revenue authority to put more staff on performance contracts

What you need to know:

KRA said the exercise was part of “culture change and re-orientation” towards a more technologically-driven State entity.
The firm will launch a mobile-phone payment platform this week, where taxpayers will be able to transact from their phone — a move that could increase turnover tax collection from small and medium enterprises.

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will introduce performance-based contracts for more staff after doing so for the top 67 managers early this year.

KRA said the exercise was part of “culture change and re-orientation” towards a more technologically-driven State entity.

Commissioner-General John Njiraini said the changes complement the iTax system that is supposed to bring various tax processes under a single platform.

“Future initiatives will focus on further extension of performance-based contract employment and the linking of retention, remuneration and benefit to performance,” said Mr Njiraini.

KRA will launch a mobile-phone payment platform this week, where taxpayers will be able to transact from their phone — a move that could increase turnover tax collection from small and medium enterprises.

The iTax system is currently enabling KRA to advise those having challenges in paying the right amounts or not paying at all.

Since March when iTax was launched, an automated VAT return analysis has identified over 40,000 cases of VAT input deduction claims which are not matched with taxpayers in the system.

READ: KRA returns to manual tax filing after online hitch

The integration of tax activities through the new ICT system is supposed to ensure taxpayers do not have to go to KRA offices every time they need service.

The iTax system will be re-launched this week after a challenging launch.

“ITax will create the next revolution in public service delivery through the complete elimination of manual processes in tax administration. KRA has migrated in entirety a variety of services to the iTax platform,” said Mr Njiraini.

The KRA chief executive was speaking ahead of the taxpayer’s week beginning Monday.

Among the services moved to the iTax platform are PIN registration, tax compliance certificate application and issuance and the filing and processing of tax refunds.

Electronic filing of returns and payment services are also available for all taxes. The electronic filing can process up to 300 returns per minute, Mr Njiraini said.

He said customer satisfaction with the new system was high as an electronic tracking survey had shown 76 per cent had rated their experience as good to excellent while 18 per cent rated it fair. Only six per cent were unhappy.