KRA now eyes eCitizen data to catch tax cheats

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is seeking to use third-party data from the eCitizen platform to catch individuals and firms evading tax as part of its strategies to hit its tough revenue targets.

The authority says information of Kenyans seeking services from government ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Lands, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Kenya Power and Business Registration Services (BRS), will be critical in revealing new information about taxpayers that was hitherto hidden from it.

“Sometimes you check data from the NTSA and you find an individual has imported high end vehicles. But when you check our records, you find that the individual has been filing nil returns. How is that possible?” said KRA acting Commissioner for Strategy, Innovation and Risk Management Alex Mwangi in an interview with the Nation, Wednesday November 1.

An amendment to the Tax Procedures Act of 2015, through the Finance Act, 2016, allowed KRA to access electronic data on taxpayers from third parties without seeking a court order.

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Such set of statistics include bank statements, import records, motor vehicle registration details, water bills, power bills and business registration details.

KRA’s pursuit has received a helping hand from President William Ruto’s administration, which has digitised more than 5,000 governments services.

The Head of State has promised to onboard an extra thousands of government services through the eCitizen platform to enhance service delivery. Thus, the platform will increasingly serve as a treasure trove for KRA in its pursuit of tax cheats as it races to expand the tax bracket and meet targets.

“The biggest opportunity that we have is leveraging on technology such as using a mobile app to pay taxes and eCitizen data to cross-check what taxpayers are declaring is a big opportunity,” said Mr Mwangi. Property developers have already felt the pinch of third-party data usage by KRA. In the two and half-year to December 2021 for instance, KRA said linking its tax system and third-parties helped bring aboard 76,025 landlords.

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One such instance of use of third-party data is for example when a customer orders thousands of meters from Kenya Power. Exchange of such data between Kenya Power and KRA enables the taxman to probe possible rental property ownership by the customer.

This comes at a time pressure is piling on the tax agency to meet ambitus tax targets set by the Kenya Kwanza administration to fund its debut budget.

KRA missed its revenue target for the first quarter of the current financial year by Sh79 billion, with tax collection hampered by tough economic conditions.

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