Tuesday, May 16, 2023 – Cabinet Administrative Secretary (CAS) to the Office of Prime Cabinet Secretary Isaac Mwaura is angry with mama mbogas and boda boda operators for failing to pay taxes.
Speaking during an interview, Mwaura faulted small business holders for failing to pay taxes as required to help President William Ruto’s government raise revenue.
He gave a breakdown of the Kenyans making statutory monthly deductions.
He noted that in a workforce of nearly 20 million Kenyans, only 3 million were making contributions.
“When it comes to the PAYE tax, only 5 million Kenyans make contributions to the government.”
“700,000 of the lot is drawn from the government with slightly over 2.3 million coming from the private sector,” he noted.
Mwaura noted that Kenyans engaged in businesses and private employment were also helping the government raise revenue through filing their taxes.
“We have like 16 million Kenyans who are working in the informal sector and only 6 million of them keep proper records that can be used for taxation purposes,” he noted.
“It is not right that only 3 million people are given the burden of raising revenue for the government,” he explained why small businesses should also help the government.
The CAS further revealed that there should be a concerted effort to ensure that people in the informal sector were helped in getting a steady stream of revenue.
He urged the government to look into the issue of informal sector to ensure that mama mboga and boda boda operators also pay taxes for good of the government.
His sentiments came a day after Ruto dismissed concerns that his government was overtaxing Kenyans.
“We are not overtaxing ourselves. We have to be realistic, if we do not pay taxes, we cannot be like the countries we want to be in their shoes,” Ruto noted during a media engagement on Sunday.
According to KRA data, over 4.4 million Kenyans pay PAYE tax, and KRA collected Ksh1. 55 trillion for the 2022/23 financial year.
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