The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced plans to implement a system to better measure voice, Internet and SMS traffic. Using this system, the government hopes to fight fraud and improve its collection of the daily revenues reported by telecom operators.
The move is part of the Kenyan government's plan for economic recovery during the 2023/2024 fiscal year. The plan aims to raise around Ksh3 trillion (US$24.1 million) in revenue, and possibly as much as Ksh4 trillion. These ambitious fiscal projections, to which telecoms are expected to contribute, are contained in the draft 2023 budget policy statement, which was submitted for government review on January 24, 2023.
Safaricom's CEO, Peter Ndegwa, explained that if the move is approved by law, telecom operators would comply. "We have heard about the new draft proposals, which the KRA Commissioner General has spoken about; they’re still at the proposal stage; I’m sure we’ll be engaged as a critical stakeholder in this proposal. Of course, we’ll always follow the law; if KRA has the right to do certain things and are approved in the normal way through Parliament, I’m sure we’ll follow the law as we have always done,” he said.