Njiriani, Tenure Comes To An And In June.

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner-General John Njiriani’s term is set to come to an end in June, making room for succession plans to commence for one of the high profile public offices.

Francis Muthaura the board chair for KRA has confirmed that Njiriani has four more months left to serve before a replacement for the bigshot seat can be found. Mr Njiraini’s departure will end a seven-year stint at the Times Tower corner office. Njiraini was appointed to office by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he was Minister for Finance.

His two, three-year terms came to end on March 3 last year, before being extended for an undisclosed period, which was claimed to be an illegal appointment to office by activist Okiya Omtatah.

The KRA chair said the board has ample time to pick Mr Njiraini’s replacement, putting to best fears of a possible leadership vacuum. The exit of Njiraini was a matter that garnered a tremendous responses during the last quarters of his term last year at the tax agency. His confirmed exit now is a pathway to find out who gets the big seat.

With the pressure from the agency to collect additional revenue, the new office will be a pressure seat for whoever takes office.

KRA, has over the years been unable to raise enough revenue to sustain government with the current task being raising 2.9 trillion to finance the government’s budget for the year.

The taxman is expected to raise up to Sh2 trillion for Henry Rotich – Treasury Secretary that is needed for spending plans which look to pump Sh1.66 trillion into recurrent expenditure between July 2019 and June 2020, while development projects will get Sh670.8 billion.

Mr Njirani’s tenure at KRA has been a roller-coaster of good highs and lows . The former Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Icpak) boss placed his bet on technology and revamped legal systems to enhance tax compliance. While tax collection has grown consistently over the years, Mr Njiraini has remained under pressure for missing revenue targets set by the Treasury. More changes are expected at the agency with Mr Njiraini’s exit.

KRA has already begun to reshuffle its team of senior managers under the leadership of Mr Muthaura, the former head of Public Service. President Uhuru Kenyatta, in a special May 23 2018 gazette notice, appointed Mr Muthaura, then 71, to serve as KRA board chairman until October 20, 2019. The president revoked the appointment of then chair Edward Sambili. Under Mr Muthaura, the KRA board has already made a series of high-profile recruitments and is expected to name more. The new team is expected to help the taxman grow collections to Sh1.997 trillion in the year starting July and Sh2.298 trillion in the 2020-21 fiscal year under its corporate plan launched on January 16.

The plan is hinged on growing the taxpayer base to seven million by June 2021 from 3.94 million in June 2018 through use of intelligent ICT platforms such as iTax, the online tax filing system and the Integrated Customs Management System for real-time monitoring of goods at major border points.

The KRA board recently named Mr Kevin Safari as the new commissioner for Customs and Border Control after a recruitment that started last October. The position fell vacant following the exit of Julius Musyoki.

The KRA board is also expected to name a substantive commissioner for domestic taxes, a position that deputy commissioner Ruth Wachira has been holding in an acting capacity since July 6, last year.

This followed the exit of Benson Korongo whose contract was not renewed.

The taxman targets to expand the tax base by 3.06 million taxpayers by June 2021 from 3.94 million in June 2018 by spying on homes and businesses using technology to flash out cheats in a bid to raise compliance to 65 per cent by June 2021 from 59 per cent in June 2018.

This includes 418,000 new individual taxpayers, 10,500 corporate bodies, 1.56 million micro enterprises with Single business permits, 66,000 landlords and 25,000 professionals.

By applying this strategy, KRA anticipates it will net an additional 500,000 taxpayers from whom it expects to collect approximately Sh60 billion in the current year, Mr Njiraini had earlier said.

The outgoing taxman however said earlier this year the collection target for the current year was not likely to be achieved.

“The prolonged elections significantly affected businesses. We are largely getting out of it, but we are not out of it,” the chief taxman said on January 16.

“We still have businesses complaining and expressing concerns regarding the (the slow) pickup of economic activities and sluggish demand, and, therefore, affecting bottom-line in terms of profitability.”

Kenya’s cumulative revenue collection shortfall hit Sh185 billion in the three years to June 2018.

Mr Rotich had set a target of nearly Sh4.19 trillion for the KRA in the period, but that fell short by Sh184.8 billion largely due to shocks in the economy and inefficiencies in the tax administration system.

The new team is expected to help the KRA grow collections to Sh1.997 trillion in the year starting July and Sh2.298 trillion in 2020-21 fiscal year under its corporate plan launched on January 16.