Service Delivery in Developing Economies

Kenya, like many other fast-growing economies, faces the threat of missing out on long-term financial stability if they don’t strengthen its tax administrations.

There are numerous benefits of rapid growth in developing economies. This also presents numerous challenges that can undo these benefits. An effective tax administration can and will enable the country to tackle the challenges of rapid growth and ensure stable and long-lasting revenue flow.

Service Delivery in the Public Sector

Central to that, is service delivery- the public sector, which we operate in, happens to be the world’s largest service provider. Any incremental or detrimental improvement in service delivery impacts millions of people. To enhance service delivery, KRA has taken strenuous strides to know the taxpayer and his/her needs.

To keep up with the rising taxpayer expectations, the Kenya Revenue Authority has reformed and transformed its customer service environment. This has in turn eradicated the generational challenges and afforded the taxman new opportunities.

KRA’s Annual Tax Summit 2022

For KRA, the provision of customer-centric services is no simple task. Cognizant of that, we have prepared a Now and Beyond, approach on Enhanced Service Delivery to Improve Tax Compliance as a focus area. This theme seeks to drive public and international dialogue around entrenching risk-based tax compliance, enhancing trade facilitation, and positioning KRA as a service-driven agency for the future.

These will be considered in a dynamic revenue administration context, largely informed by the effects of deeper integration of the global economy e.g. digitization of global commerce, pressure to strengthen tax compliance through risk-based approaches, and the emergent international trade issues post-COVID19 e.g. value chain disruptions among others.

Under this 2022 Annual Tax Summit theme, we will have two sessions on:

1. Enhancing Risk-Based Compliance: Achievements, Challenges & Prospects
2. Scaling the Tide: Customs Administration in the Globalized Age

Enhancing Risk-Based Compliance: Achievements, Challenges & Prospects

The session will lay the primacy of risk-based approaches to tax compliance and tax-base expansion. KRA is currently rolling the Tax Invoice Management System (TIMS) as a key strategy for enforcing implementation of the VAT (Electronic Tax Invoice) Regulations, 2020 to enhance VAT tax head. According to the Africa Tax Administration Forum’s (ATAF) African Tax Outlook, 2021, VAT accounted for 26.3% of total tax revenue, and contributed to about 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020.

This calls for concerted efforts to lift the VAT revenue due to its vitality to the economy. TIMS comes in to plug this gap, by riding on the digitization of commercial transactions to supply real-time data on purchases and supplies of goods and services.

Scaling the Tide: Customs Administration in the Globalized Age

This session will delve deeper into the role of a Customs Administration in the globalized age to facilitate revenue collection and the fight against commercial fraud and illicit financial flows. It also contributes to reducing unfair competition and creating transparent and predictable conditions for trade, whilst facilitating legitimate business that will in turn contribute to economic growth. Customs also safeguard the global supply chain by facilitating the safe movement of goods while applying appropriate risk management – including during pandemics and wars.

By facilitating legitimate trade, Kenya customs operate within a transnational context, and as such been an important instrument of driving and fostering regional integration – especially within the East African Community (EAC). It has therefore been hailed as one of the strategic cogs for powering international trade and defining transnational economic relations.

Do you want to learn all about the revolutionary way that information we are transforming our service delivery to satisfy every customer?

Sign up for the Annual Tax Summit 2022 and get to hear visionary views from policymakers, CEOs, and academics on Service Delivery for every Kenyan.