Revenue collection in Nairobi has deteriorated, with only Sh8.3 billion collected against a target of Sh17.5 billion in 2019-2020 financial year.
This was partly due to Covid-19 after business activities were reduced substantially since March when a curfew was declared to minimise the spread of the coronavirus that causes the disease.
Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2020 on Revenue Collection in Nairobi tabled in the House on Wednesday shows that Kenya Revenue Authority collected Sh1.86 billion in the last quarter of the financial year.
KRA was officially appointed the principal county revenue collector on March 16 as part of the agreement in the Deed of Transfer of functions of the county to the National Government.
Also under the Deed of Transfer, several officers were seconded from the National Government and deployed to KRA to undertake revenue collection services.
In March, the tax authority collected Sh495.53 million and Sh368.81 million in April. The collections for May and June were Sh412.14 million and Sh588.84 million respectively.
The sessional paper noted that the global pandemic of Covid-19 greatly hampered revenue collection and enhancement initiatives due to business closures and lockdown across the country.
This notwithstanding, KRA consistently improved revenue collection on a month-to-month basis. The June collection was 33 per cent higher than for the same period in FY 2018-19.
KRA took over from JamboPay, which City Hall had contracted in 2014 to collect revenue. The contract ended in June last year.
Declining Revenue
Controller of Budget reports show that Nairobi's annual revenue collection has been declining year after year.
City Hall has not met its revenue targets since 2013. In 2018-19, the county collected Sh10.25 billion against a target of Sh17.23 billion. This, however, was a Sh139.01 million improvement from the Sh10.17 billion collected in 2017-18 against a target of Sh15.29 billion.
City Hall set out to raise Sh19.57 billion in 2016-17, but only collected Sh10.93 billion.
In 2017-18, Governor Mike Sonko's first year in office, the county collected Sh10.11 billion against a Sh17.23 billion target.
The highest amount ever collected was Sh11.71 billion in 2015-16, which was still short of the Sh15.3 billion target.
In 2014-15, Sh11.6 billion was collected against a revised budget of Sh13.2 billion while in 2013-14, Sh9.33 billion was realised against a target of Sh12.13 billion.
- mwaniki fm
