MORE THAN 500 TAX EXPERTS GRADUATE

MORE THAN 500 TAX EXPERTS GRADUATE

By Donald Kogai

More than 500 tax professional graduated during the Kenya School of Revenue Administration graduation ceremony held at Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi County.

The graduands were awarded certificates and diplomas in various tax courses.

About 150 Post Graduate and 30 Masters graduands will soon be conferred with respective degrees at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Moi Universities, courtesy of the partnerships that the school has with the two higher institutions.

The Masters’ graduands will be the first batch of students in the East and Southern African region to graduate with Masters Degrees in Tax and Customs Administration from local institutions, and also the first in KESRA and Kenya.

Speaking during the graduation, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner-General, Mr. Githii Mburu said that the institution has enabled KRA to build staff capacity and equip Kenyans with necessary skills in Tax, Customs, and Fiscal Policy.

This, he said, will improve the compliance level in the country and ensure KRA achieve it’s core mandate which is revenue collection.

“I am happy to note that KESRA has rolled out several programs for various sectors with the aim of supporting tax compliance among corporates and government agencies.

We have also enrolled a number of our staff to sharpen their skills and ensure that they are competent to enable us to achieve our objectives”. Said the Commissioner General.

Mr Mburu said that the School has been an anchor trainer for KRA and a total of 2282 KRA staff and 1964 external personnel were trained in various capacity building programmes in the last Financial Year.

KESRA has also signed a consultancy engagement with the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) to support the Counties of Isiolo and Turkana to develop an Own Source Revenue (OSR) strategy.

During the graduation, the KESRA launched a 20-year masterplan to upgrade the Mombasa Campus.

The masterplan will see the refurbishment of the existing facilities to expand infrastructural capacity which will enable the campus to residentially host more programs.

Once fully implemented, the plan will position the Mombasa campus as a world-class campus, especially for Customs and freight forwarding training.

The implementation has commenced including the refurbishing of existing infrastructural facilities.

KESRA is the largest of the four accredited World Customs Organization Regional Training Centers in East Africa and Southern Africa and an African level provider of capacity building in Tax, Customs and Fiscal Policy.

The school is currently the host of the African Academy of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tax and Financial Crimes investigations and the regional training partner of the African Tax Administration Forum.