Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) boasts of achieving a 15 per cent increase in overall revenue during the Financial Year 2020-2021 compared to 2019-2020 while overseeing revenue collection for the Nairobi County Government.
Giving details, Annastaciah Githuba, Deputy Commissioner of the County Revenue Division revealed that during the period (FY 2020-21), KRA reported a notable upswing in Nairobi's revenue, rising from Sh 8.49 billion in FY 2019- 2020 to Sh9.76 billion in FY 2020-2021.
She attributed this revenue growth to a 54 per cent increase in land rates, a 35 per cent surge in plans and inspections (building permits), and a remarkable 78 per cent boost in market revenue during the same period.
“The Authority was involved in the deployment of an effective revenue collection strategies and structure and the implementation of the 2019 Valuation Roll,” Githuba stated.
She revealed the above while making her submission to the Nairobi County Assembly ad-hoc committee on Friday.
The Deputy Commissioner emphasized that KRA played a pivotal role in driving this growth through various initiatives.
These included the implementation of an Integrated Revenue Management System (NRS), a comprehensive review and re-engineering of county revenue administration and collection processes, and capacity-building programs for Nairobi County Government staff involved in revenue collection.
Pursuant to the Gazette Notice No.1609 of February 25, 2020, and Gazette Notice 1967 of March 6, 2020, KRA was appointed as the principal agent for the overall collection of all Nairobi County Revenue.
The authority was involved in the collection of revenue on behalf of NCCG from March 16, 2020 to September 15, 2022 as per the deed of transfer.
However, it was not a smooth ride as KRA also recorded a decrease in revenue collection in the following year 2021-2022.
Githuba revealed that the decrease was due to it being an election year.
The revenue dropped to Sh8.97 billion as a result of a slowdown of economic activities attributed to the countrywide campaigns during the period.
KRA stated that some of the key challenges encountered were unreliable master data on county revenue sources and customer information, legacy and multiple revenue collection systems that were not integrated and a lack of data to support set revenue targets.
Other challenges included are weak and outdated legal framework, a lack of framework for performance management and accountability of revenue staff deployed at KRA and a lack of adequate ICT infrastructure and connectivity.
The KRA officials had appeared before the ad-hoc county assembly committee which is probing the county’s revenue collection systems.
The MCAs had earlier raised concerns that despite Nairobi county boasting of several revenue streams, there has been alleged gross underperformance as regards the county's annual revenue collection vis a vis its annual county expenditure.
Nairobi County Assembly had expressed concerns over the transparency and accountability of the city's revenue collection system.