Commercial banks are now making it mandatory for Kenyans opening accounts to supply their Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Personal Identification Number (PIN).
The lenders have also requested existing account holders to provide their pins in the latest move by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to seal revenue leakages and nab tax cheats.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in November, 2017 ordered all commercial banks in the country to ensure that they demand Kenya Revenue Authority pin certificate for any new account openings.
This came after a deal between CBK and KRA after the Finance Bill 2016 made changes to a section of the Tax Procedures Act (TPA).
Local banks have begun asking for these details from existing customers and those opening new accounts. A notice by one of the local banks asked account holders to surrender these details by July 21st .
In the past, commercial banks in the country have not been strictly implementing the KRA pin requirement for account holders despite being under the “know your customer policy.”
CBK and KRA are mounting pressure on banks to comply with the requirement as the taxman continues to face an uphill task in raising revenue to fund kenya’s 3.074 trillion shillings budget. In the 2017/18 financial year collection, KRA fell short of its target by Sh100 billion.
It’s good to ask for pin…
It’s good to ask for pin numbers, but the government must end corruption. The government cannot ask taxpayers for money and that money ends up in people’s pockets. The taxpayer is willing to pay as long as the money is used for projects that will benefit the citizenry.
very true no one wants to…
very true no one wants to see their hard earned money publically and defiantly being misused
The tax payers work…
The tax payers work themselves crazy to earn their daily bread. It’s good to pay taxes as it happens in every country. On the other hand, the government has the obligation to protect and provide basic necessities to all. The lawmaker’s salary should be controlled and they should not be allowed to award themselves a salary more than KSH. 500’000.00
What is all about this…
What is all about this demanding our kra pin instead of asking for the politician who have looted billions of shillings now you the kra want to dig deep in our account so that if they find out anyone account is strong now they will start freezing I don’t think we will accept that I better take out everything I have in my account.
Its very alarming for KRA to…
Its very alarming for KRA to demand such. Account holders should be very informed of this conspiracy to solicit funds from their accounts and violation of people’s privacy
Hello. Please could you…
Hello. Please could you share a copy of the CBK directive. Was it in form of a circular?
In the US the IRS has access…
In the US the IRS has access and can seize your accounts. Kenya is simply arriving late to the party. Welcome to the brave new world
Nyeri Town
Nyeri Town