KRA's new system targets beer and cigarette industries

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has stepped up efforts to bolster its revenue collections as the Government reels under the weight of an ambitious Sh1.8 trillion budget. The taxman is rolling out an electronic system of monitoring excisable goods, notably wines, spirits and tobacco. The move is widely expected to curb excise tax cheats who under-value or fail to declare excisable goods. Caxton Ngeywo, the authority’s Head of Market Surveillance Office, yesterday said implementation of the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS) in these companies would ensure continuous tracking and tracing of stamps across the supply chain.


Ngeywo said the Government is losing an estimated Sh3 billion annually on excise tax scam through under-claration and non-declaration of excisable goods. He said the authority has so far seized over 300,000 fake products and arrested over 100 suspects. “People who deal with illicit trade do not believe that this system will catch up with them. They are still in a denial phase,” Ngeywo told reporters during a tour of the East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) plant in Nairobi, one of the companies where the new EGMS system has been installed. “We have now received requests from the provincial administration and the police that they want to be integrated in the enforcement of the new system.”