NAIROBI, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's digital platform iTax has boosted the country's tax compliance rate, the revenue agency said on Thursday.
Benson Korongo, the Commissioner for Domestic Taxes at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), said that more than 2.5 million taxpayers have filed their 2017 income tax returns on the iTax platform, with less than two days left before the exercise officially ends on June 30.
"This is a significant improvement compared to last year when 1.76 million individuals filed their tax returns, for both resident and non-resident categories, by the deadline," Korongo said in a statement released in Nairobi.
"The marked improvement is attributed to efficiency of the iTax platform and the increased awareness campaign undertaken by KRA encouraging early filing of returns as well as on-site filing assistance that KRA has been extending to organizations countrywide," he said.
KRA urged taxpayers who are yet to submit their returns to do so to avoid the rush close to the deadline that has been witnessed in previous fiscal years.
The tax administrator is banking on technology to widen the revenues as well as tax base.
KRA is expected to raise 17 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for the 2018/2019 financial year, up from 13 billion dollars for the current financial year that ends in June.