Proposed bill to create capital's taxman

Nairobi could soon have its own taxman similar to the Kenya Revenue Authority if a new bill is approved by the county assembly.

The Nairobi City County Revenue Administration Bill 2019, which has already undergone the first reading, creates the office of county revenue administrator who shall be competitively recruited by the County Public Service Board.

The bill authored by Finance, Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Robert Mbatia will see a break from the current revenue collection model as the authority will be fully empowered to collect revenue on behalf of the county.

The authority will work under the directions of the Finance CEC. 

Apart from collecting, receiving and accounting for revenue in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act, the authority will administer and enforce laws to ensure all funds collected are paid into the County Revenue Fund.

This is the account held at Cooperative Bank where all revenue is banked before transfer to the National Treasury.

Other key functions of the authority will include assessing revenue payable to the county where applicable, advising the Finance executive on all matters relating to administration and enforcement of revenue laws and ensuring optimum compliance is achieved.

Mbatia told the Star on Monday the bill will ensure all the inadequacies and capacity challenges that have led to low revenue collections are solved.

“We want to seal the loopholes in the sector and make revenue collection a serious issue in the county,” he said.

Mbatia further said the authority will have a board of directors to serve as its governing body and will consist of a non-executive chairperson appointed by the governor and approved by the county assembly.

It will also consist of the Finance chief officer, four other persons appointed by the Finance executive, a member from special interest groups and the county revenue administrator who shall be an ex-officio member.

The term of office of all members shall be three years but subject to renewal once.

The county revenue administrator shall be the chief executive officer of the authority subject to the general supervision and control of the CEC.

To ensure the authority is held accountable and meets its targets, the bill proposes quarterly reports on its operations and annual reports on the collection of revenue, and all matters related to it.

However, the bill proposes the closure of the current revenue office headed by Almasi Ekaya, which may translate to approval challenges. 

While the executive may be at liberty to absorb the current revenue officers into the authority, their job security concerns have been raised.

However, Mbatia said there should be no cause for alarm and that no employee will lose their jobs.

“The current officers will be given priority because our intention is to raise revenue collections and not to create unemployment," he said.

The county has been struggling to meet its revenue targets. Utawala MCA Patrick Karani said it's only through the adoption of the bill that more can be achieved.

“In the current financial year, we have a deficit of Sh7 billion and next year we could have a deficit of Sh5 billion. This means we should be working on how to reduce it,” Karani said.

Last week, a public participation forum was held at City Hall to deliberate on the bill.

It will go through the second reading process once the assembly resumes from recess next week. 

(Edited by R.Wamochie)

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