Tax collections in three months ended September 30 reached Sh289.03 billion, latest filings by the National Treasury shows. This is Sh31.11 billion or 12.06 per cent more than Sh257.92 billion in total tax revenues the Kenya Revenue Authority collected in the same period of 2015-16 fiscal year.
National Treasury CS Henry Rotich says in the Statement of Actual Revenues and Net Exchequer Issues, published last Friday, that non-tax revenues more than doubled, rising 101.11 per cent to Sh5.45 billion compared with Sh2.71 billion in the July-September period of the previous year.
Ordinary revenues in the first quarter, Rotich says, rose 12.99 per cent to Sh294.48 billion from Sh260.63 billion. The Treasury has set a full-year target of Sh1.37 trillion in ordinary revenues for the KRA this financial year, Sh160 billion more than the Sh1.21 trillion collected in the fiscal year ended June 30.
Total revenues in the three months increased by nearly half, growing 45.27 per cent to Sh459.55 billion compared with Sh316.35 billion in the same period a year ago.
Net borrowing from the domestic market increased 82.41 per cent to Sh84.04 billion from Sh46.10 billion, while the Treasury took up Sh10.11 billion in commercial loans compared to zero in the July-September period of 2015-16 fiscal year. Foreign loans amounted to Sh3.41 billion – 90.32 per cent less than Sh6.49 billion in the first quarter of 2015-16. Grants from the Amisom – the African Union-led peacekeeping military mission in Somalia which includes troops from Kenya – declined steeply from Sh1.50 billion to Sh198.68 million.
Other sources of government revenues included Sh821.02 million in foreign grants which is a 31.51 per cent drop from Sh1.08 billion previously.
The country remains heavily reliant on taxation revenues for budgetary support.
KRA is banking on continued recruitment of new taxpayers through online tax filing platform, the iTax, and increased taxes after the Excise Duty Act 2015 came to force last December to meet the targets.
Other measures include linking the iTax to third-party databases, starting with firms doing business with the government through the Integrated Financial Management Information System, whose target is by end of the year.