Thousands of Kenyan workers are set to miss their September salaries.
This is after the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) de-activated more than 95,000 VAT non-compliant their Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).
The monthly Pay As You Earn (PAYE) deductions can only be credited to active KRA accounts held on the iTax platform, making it impossible to disburse salaries of employees whose PINs are inactive.
Those whose PINs have been de-activated mainly comprise those who have pending Value Added Tax (VAT) obligations that could have arisen either from payments for private consultancies outside their workplace or directorships in personal companies that are not tax compliant.
KRA receives an average of 200,000 PIN opening requests every month. The taxman’s data shows that there are 10.6 million registered taxpayers, but only 5.8 million are on the online iTax platform.
The transactions that require proof of an active PIN certificate include registration of land titles, approval of development plans, registration, transfer and licensing of motor vehicles, and registration of business names and companies.
Others are underwriting of insurance policies, customs clearing and forwarding, payment of deposits for power connections, supplying goods and services to the State, as well as opening accounts with financial institutions.