The Kenya Revenue Authority is doing a far better job of collecting Nairobi revenue than the county.
Collection improved by Sh1.2 billion for the financial year ending on June 30, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was the first full year with the Kenya Revenue Authority in charge of collection. KRA collected Sh9.7 billion compared to Sh8.5 billion in FY 2019-2020.
However, Nairobi again failed to reach its own-source revenue target, despite KRA's efforts.
It felt short of Sh6.7 billion from a target of Sh16.459 billion.
Nairobi County Assembly Budget committee chairman Robert Mbatia praised the increase.
“This a great improvement of Sh1.2 billion, given that the coronavirus pandemic came in the last quarter, March 2020,” he said.
“But during the full year that just ended, we have Covid challenges, so it's commendable work. The improvement is remarkable if you compare Sh9.2 billion to Sh8.5 billion," he said on Monday.
Why is KRA doing so much better than local tax collectors? Mbatia didn't say but presumably they sealed leakages and, to put it politely, there were fewer irregularities in their work.
He said by the end of the third quarter (January to March), KRA had collected Sh8.2 million but there's another quarter of collections to go.
“The previous administration had collected Sh8.5 billion for a full financial year, we cannot ignore the improvement,” Mbatia added.
Despite the improvement, the budget chairman said KRA had challenges as soon as they took over the collection but unlike the executive, they were quick to point them out and found ways to solve them.
KRA was officially appointed the principal county revenue collector on March 16, 2020, as part of the agreement in the Deed of Transfer of functions of the county to the National Government and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
The taxman was tasked with improving revenue collection. Since the advent of devolution, City Hall has hardly ever collected Sh10 billion annually.
KRA took over from JamboPay, which City Hall had contracted in 2014.
According to the revenue analysis data seen by the Star, all of the 12 months recorded an improvement in revenue collection.
Last July, KRA collected Sh460.9 million, Sh455.2 million (August), Sh635.2 million (September), Sh1.1 billion (October), Sh509.5 million (November) and Sh851.8 million in December.
In January 2021, Sh1.6 billion was collected, Sh1.2 billion in February, Sh1.3 billion in March, Sh651.7 million in April, Sh494.4 million in May and Sh468.8 million in June.
As compared to FY 2019-20, Sh485.5 million was collected in July 2019, Sh413.7 million ( August), Sh600.7 million (September), Sh407.4 million (October), Sh428.5 million (November), Sh808.6 million in December 2020 and Sh1.12 billion in January last year.
In March, when the tax authority took over the collection, it netted Sh495.53 million, Sh368.81 million in April while collections for May and June were Sh412.14 million and Sh588.84 million, respectively.
The Sh8.5 billion own revenue collection was half the targeted Sh17.31 billion, partly due to Covid-19 after business activities declined.
Business activities declined substantially when a curfew was declared to curb the spread of the virus.
Night curfew, cessation of movement and stay-at-home directives disrupted business.
The 2018-19 financial year was no better, as the revenue was Sh10.17 billion, Sh5 billion less than the target of Sh15.29 billion.
Nairobi has not met its revenue targets since 2013.
In 2017-18, Sh10.17 billion was collected against a target of Sh17.23 billion. City Hall was set to raise Sh19.57 billion in 2016-17, but only collected Sh10.93 billion.
The highest amount ever collected was Sh11.71 billion in 2015-16, which was still far 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.
(Edited by V. Graham)
