Kenya is planning to monitor its flourishing mobile money industry in a bid to catch tax cheats and also limit its borrowing to boost its finances and collections by 17%.
Kenya to boost tax revenues and limit borrowing
A villager shows his mobile phone's monitor displaying a message confirming the universal basic income transaction, 2,250 shillings per month (19.5 euros), in Bondo region
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President William Ruto’s government has been trapped by an indebted economy battled by high public debts ramped up by borrowing to build infrastructure by the previous leadership.
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) now plans to to intergrate its system with those of mobile phone operators’ financial to catch tax evaders and at the same time tap on revenue.
Kenya is now targeting to grow tax revenues above 17.8 per cent of the GDP in the aforementioned financial year 2023/24, the targeted collection being $24.1 billion, and above 18 per cent of GDP over the medium term, its targeted collection being $32.2 billion.
President Ruto had previously said that the government is targeting all Kenyans with national Identification cards to have the KRA pins.
The government also said it will also reduce its foreign borrowing target for 2023/24 by a percentage point of GDP, and the domestic borrowing target by just over a percentage point of GDP