The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has provided comprehensive details on the recent training program for its newly recruited field officers known as Revenue Service Assistants (RSAs) in a fact sheet.
This comes after questions were raised on social media about the KRA’s collaboration with the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to facilitate parts of the training, with some social media users expressing concern that business owners could face harassment by the field officers during tax compliance enforcement following their paramilitary-style training.
According to the detailed fact sheet, the over 1,400 RSAs recruited under the KRA’s new structure are mandated with conducting field visits across Kenya to monitor tax compliance, ensure proper issuance of electronic tax registers and support tax base expansion initiatives.
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The RSAs are stationed across various Tax Service Offices spread out in KRA operational regions countrywide.
It outlined that the training program for the RSAs comprised comprehensive classroom-based technical modules on taxation laws, customs regulations and the KRA’s internal business systems.
These technical modules accounted for 80 percent of the entire specialized training curriculum and were facilitated solely by the KRA’s training school – the Kenya School of Revenue Administration.
The authority said the primary goal of collaborating with the KDF was to instill discipline, patriotism and physical fitness required by the RSAs to excell in their tax collection duties.
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“Due to the complexity and the challenges associated with the RSAs role in dealing with diverse taxpayers and a myriad of taxation issues, the training was to inculcate discipline, patriotism and help trainees achieve physical fitness for the demanding revenue field job,” explained the KRA.
The KRA also clarified that collaborating with the KDF to train its staff is not a new development.
“KRA has implemented various training programs in collaboration with KDF. This has been for our senior staff, middle level staff and entry level staff. Besides KDF, KESRA offers training in partnership with many other partners including local universities and international partners,” the fact sheet outlined.
There are also ongoing plans for refresher courses for the RSAs under the KRA’s elaborate staff development framework in collaboration with various partners.
