- Nairobi has failed to meet its target since 2014.
- As of June 4, 2020 only Sh7.76 billion, against a target of Sh 17.5 billion, had been collected.
Image: FILE
The Nairobi government is set to record it lowest revenue collection since 2013 when the financial year ends on June 30.
The county will have less than Sh8.2 billion against a target of Sh17.5 billion.
As of June 4, only Sh7.76 billion had been collected from the county’s sources of revenue.
“It will be a miracle if between now and June 30, Sh400 million can be collected. From the projections we have as the Budget committee, this financial year’s own source revenue will hardly hit Sh8.2 billion,” said Robert Mbatia, the Nairobi assembly Budget and Appropriations committee chairman.
Mbatia spoke last Thursday as he tabled the Annual Development Plan 2020 before the assembly.
With Nairobi being the leading coronavirus hotspot in Kenya, revenue collection in the last quarter was bound to be low.
Mbatia said revenue collection has been on the decline since March when most workplaces temporarily closed after the first case was recorded in the country.
“This was expected and it is understandable since city residents kept away from the CBD, which automatically affected revenue collection from parking and the single business permit fees,” he said.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Mbatia said the executive has to revise its estimates and priorities in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper.
“The coming financial year will be a challenge for us. We have to reconsider a lot of things at the County Fiscal Strategy Paper level due to the coronavirus pandemic and also our revenue collections are low. This means we shall have to cut our priorities by half,” Mbatia said.
The county executive in March warned that it could be forced to slash its 2020-21 budget by at least Sh5.6 billion due to low internal revenue collection.
This financial year City Hall had a deficit of more than Sh10 billion against a Sh36.98 billion budget. It realised Sh26.5 billion from equitable share from the national government, conditional grants and own source revenue.
Mbatia said a work plan has to be developed for the Kenya Revenue Authority, Nairobi Metropolitan Service and county assembly to work together in the next financial year.
FALLING REVENUE
Reports by the Controller of Budget show Nairobi's annual revenue collection has been declining year after year.
City Hall collected Sh33.24 billion between 2013 and 2016, an average of Sh11.08 billion per year.
The county has never met its revenue targets since it came into existence in 2013.
This has been blamed on unreliable rates, low collection from single business permits and inefficient collection of parking fees.
In 2018-19, the county collected Sh10.25 billion against a target of Sh17.23 billion.
This was an improvement of Sh139.01 million from the Sh10.17 billion collected in 2017-18. The target for 2017-18 was Sh15.29 billion.
In 2016-17, City Hall set out to raise Sh19.57 billion, but only managed Sh10.93 billion.
This was the last year before Mike Sonko took charge as the second governor.
In 2017-18, Sonko's first year in office, the county collected Sh10.11 billion despite aiming for Sh17.23 billion.
The highest amount ever collected was Sh11.71 billion, in 2015-16. The amount was still short of the Sh15.3 billion target.
In 2014-15, the collection was Sh11.6 billion against a revised budget of Sh13.2 billion while in 2013-14, the total collection was Sh9.33 billion against a target of Sh12.13 billion.