Kenya Plans Tougher Tax Measures After Seeing Wider Budget Gap


(Bloomberg) -- Kenya is planning legislation that could compel the payment of contested tax bills before courts rule on them, in a bid to boost government revenue and help plug a widening budget deficit.
Over 300 billion shillings ($2.9 billion) is held up in about 1,000 legal disputes before a tax-appeals tribunal and courts, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday at a meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “Most of these cases have stayed for more than two years,” he said.
The government is drafting a bill seeking to empower the tax agency to enforce mandatory payment of tax even when it’s being contested in the courts. The bill will be presented in four months, Kenyatta said.


Kenyatta’s comments come after the National Treasury increased its 2019-20 budget-deficit forecast to 6.2% of gross domestic product from 5.9% earlier following revenue shortfalls. The government also plans to shift its debt-ceiling, effectively opening up room for more borrowing to fund planned infrastructure expansion.

It feels mpeketoni every corner of Kenya. No wonder lamu is very unique in it's population census. Feeling like being tax mpeketone and am in freight mood already. Such laws or registrations are outrageous I say.

True....

1. The Drunk Emperor knows very well that the Tax Appeals Tribunal (TAT) was not sitting from March 2018 to September this year;

2. The reason for TAT not sitting is because members' terms expired in March 2018 and his Govt didn't Gazette new members for more than an year;

3. His Govt further cut the budget for the judiciary (which includes the quasi judicial tribunals like the TAT);

4. He tried to use DCI to collect taxes from Keroche, Wines of the World etc but court told him it doesn't world like that;

5. He harrased, arrested and prosecuted KRA officers, cases still in the courts but tax collection didn't rise;

6. He is now complaining of backlog at TAT as if he doesn't know who caused it;

7. Let the guy drink his whisky, go for foreign trips then retire as the most underwhelming president in the history of Kenya.

Enyewe electing someone who came from privelege and doesnt know the frustrations the businessman on the ground goes through was a big mistake.
KRA tax demands for more than half the time do not make any sense.They just pull figures from the sky and levy it out on you. Now pork wants you to pay this without defending yourself first?
Many businesses will not be able to foot these demands, then guess what, closure and loss of jobs and income to the economy.Why would a struggling business want this added on unrighteous burden?
Rating of pork so far.....2/10.....very poor....