A tailor based in Kapenguria, West Pokot County, has been shocked after the Kenya Revenue Authority allegedly demanded Sh1.74 million as tax arrears.
Speaking to NTV on Thursday, the tailor Joseph Omondi, who owns Elegance Textiles, said the aforementioned arrears accumulated over a three-year period from 2020 to April 2023.
"Sh1.7 million wanadai kutoka 2020, 2021, 2022 mpaka 2023 mwezi wa nne. Na kuna muda pia nimekuwa out of tax obligation kwa sababu jina langu sijakuwa katika TOT," he said.
(The Sh1.7 million they are demanding is from 2022, 2021, 2022 to April 2023. There is also a period I was out of tax obligation because my name was not in the Turnover Tax (TOT)).
Omondi wondered how his name was removed from the list.
The Turnover Tax is payable by resident persons whose gross turnover from business is more than Sh1 million and less than Sh50 million in any given year.
The tailor decried that the Authority was being used to exploit small business owners.
"It is like the KRA in one way or another being used as a weapon to exploit small businesses," he said.
Further, the residents of the area have also complained of the same adding that they have had to bribe KRA officers.
They also claimed that they have gone through harassment when they visited the officers to pay their arrears.
The residents called upon the government to protect their businesses from such while urging the taxman to teach the locals how to file returns.