A bid by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to have the right to access individual and company mobile money transactions in its fresh war against tax evasion has been rejected.
According to Business Daily digital news, Thursday June 16, telecommunication giant Safaricom threw out the taxman’s pursuit to gain unregulated access to its customers’ mobile money records.
“As you are aware, the Constitution of Kenya restricts access to confidential customer information,” Stephen Chege, Safaricom corporate affairs director, told the Business Daily in an email response.
Earlier reports pointed out that Mr Njiraini said that a partnership was underway with Safaricom and Equity Bank to reduce tax evasion, but as per latest news the mobile operator has now denounced the existence of such a deal.
The latest development now makes it a big hurdle at the Treasury-backed plan meant to smoke out tax cheats from the authority which is reeling from a shortfall of Sh69.1 billion on its revenue collection target.