Kenya’s Parliament announced in a Facebook post that it is evaluating the Kenya Revenue Authority (Amendment) Bill 2024, which was first presented on 15 August 2024.
The bill is currently under review by the Committee on Finance and National Planning. The Clerk of the National Assembly has called for views on it.
According to the Bill, the waiver shall only be considered when the failure is inadvertent or the agent has been placed under receivership or statutory management.
The Bill reads, “Section 15a of the Kenya Revenue Act is amended by inserting ‘The Cabinet Secretary may waive part or the whole of the penalty due under subsection three immediately after subsection four.’” Such a waiver, it adds, shall be offered if the payment suffered system downtime, no negligence, or prior notification of receivership.
Agents have previously had to transfer the burden of paying penalties to traders when they delay in remitting collected revenues, causing businesses and companies to incur massive losses. The Bill seeks to end this practice through a waiver and only imposes penalties for delays without valid causes.
The waiver mainly targets commercial banks designated as tax agents when taxes are submitted beyond the standard two-day timeframe.
