KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini. Photo/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 17 – The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is set to monitor all excisable products through a new system dubbed the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS) in order to increase revenue and improve efficiency.
The authority hopes to increase revenue by 20 percent in the current financial year if the system is effective.
The system provides for online ordering and approval for delivery with the details of the stamp captured in the system at the time of printing and are tracked along the supply chain right from the printing facility in Switzerland to delivery to the manufacturers.
Currently, the products under the EGMS regime are tobacco products, wines and spirits beverages.
KRA will use this system to eliminate excise tax fraud usually executed through mis-declaration, under declaration or non-declaration of excisable goods.
The information captured into the system includes type of product, brand, package quantity, name of manufacturer, and date of manufacture.
This control is aimed at ensuring that the correct values and quantities of the products are declared since excise duty is charges either on value or quantity.
The EGMS is designed for use at both automated and manual production lines.
“Automatic stamp activation and counting equipment is installed to pick production data with minimum human intervention, yet in the manual environment, the data is uploaded through a web-based module. In both cases, data is transmitted on real-time basis to the KRA database,” the taxman explained.
The system also enables on the spot identification of non conforming products which will facilitate effective enforcement through on the spot arrests and impounding of contraband goods.
The authority will carry out a nationwide sensitization programme on EGMS targeting manufacturers, importers, retailers and enforcement authorities.
