Those customers whose cargo were delayed from the on going Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) system break down can claim for a tax waiver, Beatrice Memo, senior deputy commissioner, customs has said.
The law provides provision for customers to write a complainant to the commissioner. If one's case is proved to have been solely caused by system break down at KRA the costs can be shared by government, she pointed out.
Memo in a press conference at KRA confirmed that no revenue collection will be affected from the break down rather the collection will be differed to the future. KRA collects a tax of a tune of Sh16-17 billion per month from the 1,700 cargo containers cleared every day at different KRA entry points in the country.
Once the systems will start working oil products will be given the first priority, she said the reason why the operations went down across the country is because no cargo can be cleared without declaration from KRA head office, Nairobi.
Kenya Ports Authority Chief operations Manager, Engineer Joseph Atonga confirmed that clearing of cargo from the port of Mombasa was paralyzed leading to no loading and off-loading of goods from ships.
Kennedy Wanyonyi, senior deputy commissioner, marketing and communication said the system break down were “occasioned by an exercise to enhance electric power supply at their data centre point through installation of a new battery back up. As a result, there has been an interruption of KRA Online services, especially adversely affecting users of the customs system, which is our main link to the customer.”
The short term inconvenience notwithstanding, Wanyonyi said we are committed to normalizing operations within the shortest possible time. As customs operations take place on a 24 hour cycle, we plan to deploy additional officers in the next few days, to ensure that the backlog generated is eliminated and applicable revenue collected expeditiously.
“I'm happy to report that the system relating to motor vehicle transactions including registration, transfer of motor vehicle ownership, dealer licensing, processing of driving and PSV licenses, issuance of foreign and TLB licensing among others has been fully restored and normal operations have resumed.”
Ezekiel Saina, senior deputy commissioner, information communication technology clarified that their were no software installation going on at KRA as one electronic mail which was doing rounds yesterday was claiming. He refuted that there is no company currently contracted for networking and software installation at institution.
Alliance Technologies based at Lavington made the claim to their own press release part of it read “a team of management experts and software engineers will soon commence work on phase II of a new KRA management system expected to transform operations in the Finance, Human Resource and Procurement arms of KRA.
We do not expect any major interruption of services because phase 1, which is complete and live, deployed the crust of the critical frame of this system. When we complete phase II, a total of 17 modules will be live in the three departments which means KRA will be nimbler and relying on a more intelligent.”
However, Saina said the problem began on Tuesday evening when they were installing a third back up power system to minimize power interruptions. In the process of switch over power to the new power battery back up system power tripled destroying critical components in the information communication technology system that are connected to the main internet server at KRA. “This break down interrupted the entire system.”
The exercise of installing new power battery back up systems has been going on in the entire country being done by Chloride Excite company. This happened as they were coming to an end of this installations at KRA head quarters, Nairobi.
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