The KEPSA Public Finance Sector Board held an engagement with representatives from the National Treasury and Economic Planning Ministry. The forum deliberated on the Draft National Tax Policy, on Friday 27th January 2023.

The KEPSA delegation comprised of KEPSA Public Finance Sector Board Chair Ms Eva Warigia, KEPSA Public Finance Sector Board Vice Chair Ms Rose Mwaura, Tax Director at BDO Consulting Mr Steve Okoth, Tax Director at RSM East Africa Ms Jilna Shah, Tax Consultant at Viva Consulting Ms Sheila Mate and Mr Emmanuel Otieno from KEPSA Management.

The National Treasury side was led by Mr Joseph Ngugi who appreciated the memorandum from KEPSA and lauded some of the proposals such as the setting up of a separate tax court with judges with specialized training to handle the tax cases that take time to settle and inhibit business operations.

The meeting agreed that the National Tax Policy should ensure that the taxation regime in Kenya is predictable to promote the country’s competitiveness and attract business. The meeting also noted the criticality of the draft national tax policy incorporating practical best practices from across the globe.

It was agreed that KEPSA should provide more information on how the National Tax Policy would;

1. Effectively capture a model on how to sustainably tax the hard-to-tax sectors of the economy.

2. Ensure that Environmental Social and Governance practices are expressly captured.

3. Ensure two-year the Excise inflationary tax adjustment proposal is worded to cater for revenue retention by the government and eased the business environment.

In conclusion, it was noted that the National Treasury should target to have the draft policy submitted to the Cabinet for approval by the end of February 2023 and thereafter start working on the alignment of the tax laws to the policy.