The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will fail to recover 94.4% of the 1.6 trillion Shillings unpaid by taxpayers, Business Daily newspaper reported.

An outstanding revenue balance of 1.51 trillion shillings ($12.3 billion), or 94.4%, is considered “uncollectible and doubtful.”

A report submitted to the parliament showed that the uncollectible debt increased by 142 billion shillings in June 2021.

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said the revenue accountability statements of the KRA state an outstanding revenue balance of 1.601 trillion shillings compared to 1.459 trillion shillings reported as of June 2020.

The disclosures came when President William Ruto ordered austerity measures, resulting in a 300 billion shilling budget cut for the current fiscal year.

KRA is planning measures to reduce the piling uncollected revenue, including establishing a full-time project team to fast-track debt validation of legacy system debts, the report said.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)