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 Steve Umidha @UmidhaSteve

Network Africa (TJNA) and the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) will move to Parliament to have the State rescind tax treaties it signed with Singapore and Barbados, barely a month after effectively petitioning the matter against the National Treasury.

On Monday, the two civil groups said there was need to evaluate both tax treaties Kenya signed with the two countries as they are likely to negatively affect Kenyan tax law.

Singapore and Barbados are on the verge of ratifying double tax treaties with Kenya, a decision that continue to face opposition from various quarters.

Revenue losses

Such a decision, the two groups added, could expose the country into future revenue losses if it is to be ratified in its current form.

The two countries are considered by anti-corruption and global anti-money laundering agencies as some of the murkiest financial centres in the world besides Mauritius and other well-known tax havens.

In a dispatch to newsrooms early this month, the Cabinet said it had among a raft of measures aimed at improving  the country’s overall competitiveness approved an avoidance of double taxation agreement between Kenya and Singapore.

Parliament, the two groups say should scrutinise the impending tax treaty with the Asian Island country to avoid foul play by State officials.

“This is especially because these treaties entail a restriction on tax sovereignty and have major revenue implications and grant tax benefits and exemptions to foreign investors not available to Kenyan citizens or companies,” they said in a joint statement.

Such action, they added, would result in reduction of government revenue and directly affecting the public finances and the sharing of the burden of taxation (Constitution Article 201). 

Kenya’s TJN Executive Director Alvin Mosioma said considering the increasing significance of tax havens in the loss of domestic revenue there is need to publicly explain why there’s an urgency to sign double taxation Agreements ( DTAs) with known tax haven jurisdictions.

He said Kenyan should have instead of prioritised implementation of one that has already been developed by the East African Community (EAC) members, who are the country’s largest trading partners.

Mosiama said public impact analysis on the risk of revenue loss will need to be shared for a national debate.