The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget chaired by Mandera Senator Ali Roba, earlier today held a meeting with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General Rispah Simiyu to look into various queries that had been raised by senators.

Issues raised include suspension of tax relief by Senator Crystal Asige as well as allegations of unsettled and unremitted statutory PAYE deductions for staff in county assemblies.

In her statement, Senator Asige wanted KRA to clarify the issue of suspension of tax reliefs arguing that since the directive to suspend tax reliefs, waivers and exemptions was issued, employers have been experiencing challenges in accessing the link for uploading tax exemption certificates.

“This was a technical challenge that was resolved by 5th June 2023, this challenge was on the Persons with Disabilities checker where employers were not able to validate on the KRA system the tax exemption certificates for the PWDs,” read part of the submission by KRA.

KRA also made submissions on the state of remittance of statutory deductions for staff in county assemblies from 2022 to date. 

“For the period under review, County Assemblies recorded a late payment rate of 51% whereas County Executive recorded a late payment rate of 47% for the same period, the sole reason attributed to the late remittance of PAYE is the delay in disbursement by the exchequer,”submitted KRA.

The committee also met with Council of Governors to deliberate on implementation of the conditional grant on supplement for construction of County headquarters.

Other members present were; Sen. Dr. Boni Khalwale, Sen. Shakila Abdalla, Sen. Eddy Oketch, Sen. Tabitha Mutinda and Sen. Mohamed Faki.