All KRA employees to receive double salaries as reward for tax collection

KRA Employee Salary: Kenya Revenue Authority is set to reward all its employees with double salaries following what it termed as exemplary collection of taxes. According to reports in the media, KRA will pay its employees bonuses that will be equivalent to a month’s salary.

These bonuses have been revealed by an internal notice by KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu. Mr. Mburu also revealed that the bonus payout to employees had been approved by the cabinet secretary for National Treasury Ukur Yatani.

“This improved performance was achieved in the backdrop of a difficult economic environment caused by the negative impacts of the ongoing pandemic. In line with our policy and practice of recognizing and rewarding achievement of performance targets, the board has received approval from the National Treasury to pay a performance bonus equivalent to one month’s basic salary to all staff,” said Mburu in the notice.

According to the 2021 Budget Policy, KRA had set a collection target of Sh. 1.652 trillion. However, this was surpassed by more than Sh. 16.81 billion.  Revenue collection in the financial year 2020/21, which ended on June 30, reached the new record of Sh. 1.669 trillion compared to Sh. 1.607 trillion collected in financial year 2019/20. This was both tax and non-tax revenue.

This represented a performance rate of 101 per cent and revenue growth of 3.9 per cent compared to the previous financial year. Revenue collection has more than doubled in the last 10 years from Sh. 707 billion in 2011/12 , representing a growth of 136 per cent.

In the 2020/21 period, the exchequer revenue grew by 2.3 per cent with a collection of Sh. 1.544 trillion compared to Sh. 1.510 trillion collected in financial year 2019/20,  and represents a performance rate of 100.9 per cent against the target of Sh. 1.530 trillion. This was before accounting for Sh. 18.5 billion that the  National Treasury undertook to pay on behalf of taxpayers.

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The Domestic Taxes Department (DTD) collected Sh. 1.039 trillion during the financial year translating to a performance rate of 99.8 per cent while Customs and Border Control collected Sh. 624.77 billion, surpassing its target of Sh. 606 billion.

Petroleum taxes amounted to Sh. 226.680 billion posting a growth of 34.5 per cent  and a surplus of Sh. 12.252 billion. Non-oil revenue recorded a growth of 16.4 per cent with collections amounting to Sh. 398.1 billion which was above target by Sh. 5.9 billion. Corporation tax recorded a growth of 3.7 per cent in financial year 2020/21 despite a tough business environment, where the tax rate was reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent in the first half of the financial year.