Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) has announced plans to auction Kenya Power transformers to compensate for the unpaid taxes.
The auction is associated with delays by Kenya Power to clear taxes for the import of the transformers and warehouse charges.
In a Gazette notice, the taxman has given Kenya Power 30 days to clear the transformers that were shipped into the country seven years ago.
“Unless the under-mentioned goods are entered and removed from the Customs Warehouse within thirty (30) days from the date of this notice, they will be sold by public auction on August 12, 2021,” KRA stated.
This comes at a time the utility firm is expected to face new fines for irregular power cuts to customers.
Some parts of the country are facing regular power failure owing to insufficient electricity generation capacity.
The cases of power outages in the country has led a section of Kenyans and firms have resorted to solar energy, which has been deemed the best alternative.
The company’s big power consumers such as Africa Logistics Properties (ALP), Mombasa International Airport, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) have recently commissioned solar power units on their properties.
In addition, several companies, universities and factories have also turned to solar photovoltaic (PV) grid-tied systems to supply power for internal use to ensure reliable supply and reduced operational costs.
In July, KRA announced a raft of measures, including the deactivation of PINS whose owners have persistently failed to file their returns.
The authority is also in a race to curb tax cheating and evasion in the quest to meet targets in an economy where Covid-19 economic fallout has battered collections.
It plans to hire 6,604 more officers in three years in a bid to raise nearly Sh.1 trillion additional revenue through the pursuit of tax cheats such as shrewd high-net-worth individuals and landlords.
A total of 1,049 officers were recruited in three years through June 2021, a quarter of the 3,900 more workers the agency had targeted.
Earlier this year, KRA partly blamed understaffing for persistent shortfalls in revenue targets set by the Treasury.
This prompted the Finance and National Planning Committee of the National Assembly in January to direct the Treasury to provide funding for hiring 2,000 additional staff for the Kenya Revenue Authority.