It is encouraging to note that the Kenya Revenue Authority is widening the tax base and enforcing compliance to ensure that government programmes are well funded. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm applied in the collection of taxes is not replicated in the prudence and anti-corruption efforts needed to safeguard the cash collected.
The new Internet-enabled electronic tax registers (ETRs) that will allow the taxman to track invoicing by businesses on a real time basis have the potential to significantly increase tax collection.
Citizens pay taxes expecting better services in return. The conversation, therefore, must move beyond just collecting money from an over-taxed population to improving service delivery.
Many of the billions collected from Kenyans as taxes or service fees are too often wasted on programmes conceived to loot public funds or those executed at overstated costs. Others are schemes that benefit private firms more than ordinary citizens like was the case in NYS and Afya House scandals.
Also among the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayers’ sweat are top civil servants and the political class who line their pockets with hefty perks. Just last month, each of the 416 MPs received Sh2.25 million as monthly house allowance after it was backdated by nine months.
The plain truth is that the government has not taken any significant steps to give taxpayers value for their money. Efforts to reign in corrupt officials have yielded very little as well.
Increased revenue collection without adequate checks and prudent spending only warrants a looting spree. Steps should be taken to seal loopholes that the officials use to steal public funds.
The government must be judicious with spending and put money in initiatives that will improve education, healthcare, security, housing and infrastructure.
Kenya is ranked eighth globally and sixth in Africa among countries with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock 2018 report.
With a poverty escape rate of 0.5 people per minute, Kenyans need a high fiscal accountability and transparency to ensure that public funds are spent prudently to a cent on projects that will improve their welfare.
As observers often point out, Kenya does not have a problem with revenue collection. The State has a spending problem.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
