The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has launched a new system enabling taxpayers to request information using SMS and USSD technology through their mobile phones.
The new service will allow taxpayers and their agents to request information from KRA through any mobile network operator in the country such as Airtel, Orange, Safaricom and Yu.
The users will be required to dial the USSD code *572# which will give them access to the menu or alternatively send an SMS request to 22572.
Information services that will be made available on the service include road transport, domestic tax and customs services.
In collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and its technology partner, Craft Silicon, KRA is working to expand the scope of the new service.
KRA said it expects to launch mobile payment services in the near future in an effort to provide convenient and transparent services to taxpayers.
With its corporate plan ending June 2015, KRA plans to establish a fully ICT networked and paperless organisation, providing taxpayers with multiple channels through which to access its services.
John Njiraini, commissioner general at KRA, said: “This process will not only ease tax compliance, but will also help greatly in eradicating opportunities for corruption that the manual environment provides.”
The commissioner was speaking yesterday during the launch of KRA’s 2013 taxpayers’ week in Nairobi.
