City motorists, online traders hit in new revenue plan

City residents will be forced to fork out more cash as the Nairobi county government is set to increase levies in the Sh35.2 billion 2019-20 budget.

Motorists who have been enjoying a parking fee of Sh200 since January will now pay more.

During the 2019-20 budget pronouncement on Tuesday, Finance executive  Charles Kerich said the reduced fee has caused a drastic reduction of the city's revenue collections as well as increased congestion within the Central Business District.

"The exact details and amounts wii be contained in the Finance Bill that will be tabled before the assembly," he said.

Owners of online businesses operating in the city will also pay more as City Hall is scheduled to initiate an amendment to its revenue laws to rope in online trading.

Private schools and businesses will be affected as the county government will introduce specific charges for waste.

As of Monday next week, business in the entertainment and gambling industries will be charged as currently the county only gets revenue from pool tables and premises.

Kerich said the new charges are in order and are part of measures to increase revenue collection for the next financial year. The county targets Sh17.32 billion internal revenue to fund its Sh35.2 billion budget.

In the current financial year, the county had set a target of Sh15 billion and as of May, Sh10 billion had been collected.

Last year's collection stood at Sh10.1 billion.

"The demand for services by far outmatches the ability of the county to deliver partly because a majority of the county population enjoy the services without contributing any amount to the county as fee or charge,” Kerich said.

The county will amend laws to introduce a city bed-occupancy levy in order to ensure it collects primary data across all 138 revenue streams, he said.

The executive further said the above will be done through a census stewarded by the Economic Planning department to determine the number of businesses in Nairobi.

New collection systems 

However, he attributed the low revenue performance to over-reliance on automation without a corresponding effort on innovation.

To achieve optimal revenue collection, Kerich said the county has placed its effort towards rolling out an effective internal revenue management system.

This after City Hall terminated its contract with JamboPay on June 7.

Kerich said the county will restrict the issuance of waivers "which have the potential of injuring the county revenue targets, restraining the growth of the wage bill".

“These coupled with innovation of creative enforcement models for the rapid growth of own source revenue shall have the net effect of achieving the target contained in the budget 2019-20,” he said.

In addition, he said, the executive will engage the assembly to restructure the Nairobi City County Revenue Administration Bill 2019 and will ensure all revenue streams are domiciled in the County Treasury as well as provide enough tools and resources to facilitate revenue collection.

In the Sh35. 2 billion budget estimates, Health has been allocated Sh7.4 billion, the highest at 21 per cent.

Transport has been allocated Sh8 billion compared to last year's Sh3.64 billion.

Other sectors include Education (Sh2.1 billion), Safety and Security (Sh2.2 billion), Urban Planning (Sh688 million) and Sh126 million for Agriculture.

Water and Environment has been allocated Sh2.7 billion, subcounty administration in the office of the Governor (Sh2.3 billion) and the county assembly (Sh3.2 billion). 

Edited by R.Wamochie 

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