The Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) iTax platform payment gateway managed to process transactions valued at more than Ksh280 billion for the period of 1st January and 8th June 2016.
This is according to the latest statistics by the Authority. The submissions were facilitated by the KRA Finance Team led by Deputy Commissioner Josephat Omondi, which saw the Authority win a key global award.
The team effectively traced the authority’s journey to the introduction of a digitised domestic tax collection system interlinked with ten key banks through a robust payment gateway. “Through the iTax integration, a key corporate banker such as Citi managed to process more than 20 per cent of KRA’s total tax collection in the last financial year,” noted the Authority in a statement.
The iTax payment gateway which recently received commendation in the global banking arena allows local corporates and individual taxpayers to conveniently file their returns and settle their tax dues through the local commercial banks network.
KRA recently won the Adam Smith Awards 2016 after it submitted a case study on the successful rollout of the iTax Domestic Tax platform.
The Authority won the Africa Category title from a wider pool of more than 219 nominations from 19 countries across the world for facilitating a tax payment gateway for more than 37 local commercial banks on the iTax and Simba system platforms.
KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini noted that the award underlines the Authority’s commitment to global excellence in revenue collection.
He disclosed that the iTax platform currently features more than 3.5 million active taxpayers and paid tribute to KRA employees for a job well done. Mr Njiraini confirmed that the new system has enhanced tax collection efficiency.
“Since its original launch in March 2014, the iTax platform has revolutionalised public service delivery through the complete elimination of manual processes in tax administration,” he said.
Currently, KRA has migrated in entirety a variety of its services to the iTax platform, including PIN registration, Tax Compliance Certificate application and issuance and the filing and processing of VAT refunds.
Electronic filing of tax returns and payment services are also available for all taxes, meaning that there no longer exists the need for any taxpayer to physically visit KRA offices or even their bank to transact tax business.
