Twenty clearing and forwarding agents based at Mombasa Port have been blacklisted by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) over non-compliance issues.
According to KRA, all consignments declared by the clearing agents in the list are to be considered as high risk.
In a letter, KRA deputy commissioner for Revenue J Kaguru says that the firms were found to have ‘non-compliance issues’ after several risk analyses.
“The attached list of 20 clearing agents have been found to have compliance issues, after several risk analysis,” read the letter.
The clearing agents are; Regal Freighters, Delta Express, Subukia Holdings, Greentop Logistics, Zanaa Freights, Riam Logistics as well as Utmost Freight Matters Limited.
Others are Ozone Freight Forwarders Limited, Adelcus Agencies, Wiljones Logistics, Venues Kenya Limited and Neline Shipping and Logistics Enterprises.
Kaguru said the purpose of the communication was to request Document Process Centers, National Targeting Centers and the release stations to make appropriate arrangements to comply.
This comes at a time where the taxman is racing to bring more people into the tax bracket and curb tax dodging and evasion in the quest to meet revenue targets that it has persistently missed in recent years.
Early this month, KRA Commissioner-General Githii Mburu said it has assigned a number of officers to spend time on social media trawling wealthy persons whose tax records are not in line with what they showcase online.
“In the social media, we have some people posting some nice things. You would see some posting nice houses, cars, taking their families to nice places, and so on. Here, we are not sleeping, when we see those, we see taxes,” Mburu said in an interview with a local daily.
“We have our officers looking, they have gadgets. The key is in very quickly (the number plate) to check. We are working exceptionally hard.”
Mburu further said that those found guilty of tax evasion yet they display a lavish lifestyle will be banned from traveling outside the country.
He said the decision was made in order to add more Kenyans into the tax bracket.
The authority surpassed its tax collection targets in its October performance.
KRA collected Sh154.3 billion, Sh27 billion more than the Sh142.2 billion it had targeted for the month.
Mburu attributes the 30 per cent increase to widening of the tax bracket and catching cheats.