• Nairobi has failed to meet its targets.
• Land rates raked in the most revenue at Sh1.1 billion.
Image: FILE
Nairobi county collected Sh292.9 million housing rent in six months, the best performing own revenue source.
The target was Sh300 million. The performance rate was 98 per cent.
Though the target was missed, the amount collected was an improvement from the Sh241.6 million collected in the same period in 2019-20.
Fire Inspection Certificate was second in terms of performance with Sh54.9 million. However, the collection dropped from Sh57.5 million in the same period in 2019-20. The performance rate was 91 per cent.
Despite house rent and fire inspection leading in performance, land rates raked in the most revenue at Sh1.1 billion. Land rates had a performance rate of 89 per cent.
The report was in the monthly revenue data analysis from the Kenya Revenue Authority. KRA was appointed the principal county revenue collector on March 16, 2020, as part of the agreement in the Deed of Transfer of functions to the national government.
The report indicated that the total revenue collected in Nairobi was Sh3.9 billion. This was an improvement of 25 per cent compared to Sh3.1 billion collcted in 2019-20.
Despite the improvement in its collection, the county failed to meet its monthly targets except for October when Sh1,052,192,437 was collected against a target of Sh1,039,658,080.
KRA collected Sh466.6 million in July, Sh454.9 million in August, Sh604.7 million in September, Sh1.05 billion in October, Sh502.5 million in November and Sh842.8 million in December.
The target was Sh905.2 million in July, Sh909.7 million in August, Sh979.7 million in September, Sh1.04 billion in October, Sh1.1 billion in November and Sh1.4 billion in December 2020.
Other revenue sources include parking fees at Sh685.3 million, single business permit Sh470.3 million, building permit Sh321.6 million and billboards and advertisement Sh291.3 million.
Some Sh50.1 million was collected from food handlers certificates, Sh101.1 million from others markets, Sh60.8 million from building regulations, while other incomes generated Sh433.1 million.
County assembly finance, budget and appropriations committee chairman Robert Mbatia said the contradicting messages from City Hall asking residents to pay revenue using the former short code *235# might have contributed to the failure to achieve the set targets.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Service and KRA last year introduced a new USSD code *647# to replace *235#.
“Despite the new code, City Hall continued to run adverts using the old code resulting in loss of revenue because people were still paying using the old code,” he said.
Mbatia also faulted a waiver announcement that led to many people not paying their arrears.
In October, former Governor Mike Sonko had given a six-month rent waiver extension for tenants, citing Covid-19 financial challenges.
However, NMS Director General Mohammed Badi said Sonko had no authority to give rent waivers to those residing in county government houses since housing is one of the transferred functions.
“It is not legitimate because it is a transferred function. He has absolutely no authority to waive. After all, the Kenya Revenue Authority is the one collecting revenue, not the governor,” he said.