The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) plans to disable the Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) of firms and individuals suspected of evading taxes.
This drastic measure is expected to cut off affected individuals and businesses from registering and or transferring land, motor vehicles as well as other assets that require proof of active registration as a taxpayer.
Those affected will also not get approvals of their development plans or register business names or companies.
Insurance firms will not be able to underwrite any business while clearing and forwarding firms will not be able to do any cargo business. Non-complaint individuals will also be stopped from doing any business with the state or opening an account with any financial institution.
According to local dailies, employers will also be committing a crime if they wire salaries to the accounts of workers whose PINs have been deactivated.
KRA said it has already identified 1,309 firms and wealthy individuals that owe it KSh 259 Billion, with the tax authority sleuths planning to issue ban travels and freeze assets of those implicated.
In the 2020/21 Budget, KRA was allocated KSh 10 Billion to beef up its capacity to identify and capture wealthy tax cheats.
The additional funds enable KRA to hire sleuths, equipment and more staff as it goes after wealthy tax cheats.
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