Africa-Press – Kenya. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) narrowly missed the quarterly collection target for the first three months of the year.
The Statement of Actual Revenues and Net Exchequer Issues by the National Treasury for the period to September 30 shows KRA collected Sh465.2 billion against a quarterly target of Sh517.5 billion.
This was, however, 11.6 per cent more compared to Sh416.8 billion collected similar period last year.
In September alone, the tax agency collected Sh185 billion, representing a 9.1 per cent year-over-year growth in collections from Sh169.6 billion in September 2021.
The rise in tax collections is attributable to improved economic conditions following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions at the back end of last year alongside improved efficiency in collections by KRA.
In addition to the tax settings, KRA collected Sh20.2 billion in non-tax revenues which present nettings from fines and other levies on taxpayers.
KRA has been betting on digitisation and improved compliance from taxpayers to raise nettings from taxes.
The taxman expects to enlist a further one million persons this year to lift the number of taxpayers registered on the i-Tax system to 7.1 million as of June 2023.
KRA is set to be under pressure to improve its collections as the new government administration prioritises domestic revenue mobilisation to plug the budget deficit.
The agency is expected to collect at least Sh173 billion per month to meet its Sh2.071 trillion target this fiscal year.
In general, the government received Sh680.7 billion in total revenues in the three months to September 30, with taxes constituting nearly 70 per cent of the revenues.
The exchequer released a total of Sh276 billion to fund recurrent expenditures in the national government, while Sh68 billion was released to fund development activities across all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Of the Sh370 billion county governments expect an equitable share from the national government, the exchequer released Sh70.3 billion, which translates to 19 per cent of the annual budget.
By September 30, total cash released from Treasury to both counties and MDAs was Sh679.3 billion, leaving the exchequer with a balance of Sh2 billion.
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