Kenya: Officials Tell Off Tax Evaders

7th August 2007 (Daily Nation)
Tax administrators from 46 Commonwealth countries meeting in Nairobi have decried evaders and frauds saying they posed a major challenge to their work. The 28th annual technical Conference of Commonwealth Association of Tax administrators (CATA) was opened at Intercontinental Hotel on Sunday evening by Finance minister, Amos Kimunya. This is the first time the conference dubbed Promoting Economic Sovereignty through Tax Reforms is being held in Kenya since the tax administrators association was formed in 1977. Speaking during the opening ceremony, Mr Kimunya said developing countries were confronted by challenges in tax collection, particularly from multinational firms. "The globalisation of business has visited unprecedented challenges upon the newly-created revenue agencies. "This is especially with regard to the complex nature of the trade dealings of multi-national corporations with elaborate branch networks abroad," he said. The minister said CATA should seek ways on how to effectively mitigate the devastating effects of tax frauds, evasion and avoidance and money laundering. Complex schemes He said this happens through complex schemes such as transfer pricing and thin capitalisation, among other ways. CATA chairman, Mustapha Mosafeer also singled out these as major challenges. Kimunya said CATA provided a forum for sharing experiences on best practices in tax administration reforms. The organisation deals in technical training and consultancy on tax matters. Mr Kimunya said the tax administration reforms the Government had instituted from 2003, had enabled the country to double its tax collection to Sh380 billion from Sh190 billion in 2002. The Government's target for this financial year was Sh420 billion. Kenya Revenue Authority commissioner-general, Michael Waweru, said revenue collection in several countries could decline due to environmental degradation. He said there was need to find the linkage between environmental sustenability, economic development and revenue collection. "The changing climate patterns, perhaps should begin to act as a wake up call to revenue agencies that revenue figures are under threat," Mr Waweru said.