TUKO.co.ke journalist Wycliffe Musalia has over six years of experience in financial, business, technology, and climate reporting, which offers deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends.

Commercial banks have denied the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) access to their customer data.

KRA sought to integrate its tax system with all the 38 banking systems following the changes in the Tax Procedures (Amendment) Act 2024, signed by President William Ruto and took effect on December 27.

The law gave the authority powers to integrate its tax system with the taxpayers.

This came even as the taxman established various measures and reforms to nab tax cheats and enhance compliance.

KRA Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga said the reforms are part of the authority's efforts to increase revenue collection and meet targets.

According to Business Daily, a joint meeting between KRA and the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) discussing the matter failed to reach an agreement on the process of integration.

The bankers cited issues with personal information and customer rights contained in the Data Protection Act 2019.

They expressed fears that the integration could infringe on sensitive customer data that could lead to lawsuits and penalties affecting their operations.

In an exclusive interview with , KBA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Raimond Molenje explained that the government needs to come up with a proper legal framework supporting KRA's integration process.

"We (banks) have not been given a proper guideline on how the KRA integration will be carried out without infringing on customer privacy rights. This was the main reason the meeting failed to reach an agreement. What we want is a legal framework that supports banks in the whole process," said Molenje.

Molenje, however, noted that banks are compliant to the law and remain committed to serving customers to the best of their expectations.

Efforts to get a comment from KRA failed as the authority's commission team had yet to reply to our email.

In 2024, President William Ruto's administration announced plans to integrate the KRA tax system with the mobile money payment systems including Safaricom M-Pesa.

Senior Economic Advisor in Ruto's government Moses Kuria said the plan was set to launch in late December 2024.

Kuria explained that the move to integrate KRA tax system with mobile money wallets like M-Pesa paybills as virtual electronic tax receipts will enhance the country's revenue collection.

Source: TUKO.co.ke