The Council of Governors has rejected a proposal by the National Treasury to decide on how county governments will generate revenue through taxes, stating that it violates the constitutional functions of counties.
The proposal by the Treasury is contained in the proposed County Governments (Revenue Raising Regulation Process) Bill of 2017, which the governors say countermands how counties levy their taxes.
Council of Governors chairman Mr. Josephat Nanok stated on Monday that the Treasury should focus on developing regulations that can help counties identify revenue sources as well as assist in curbing double taxation.
During the meeting, the CoG in unison shot down the proposal presented to them by a technical team from the Treasury and instead Mr Nanok said that a technical team from the council will work with that from the Treasury in formulating a policy that streamlines the counties’ revenue generation.
If the bill is passed, counties will be required to submit tax proposals to the National Treasury and the Commission on Revenue Allocation at least 10 months before the beginning of every financial year.
The Bill goes ahead to define how the national government may exercise its policy oversight role and how the counties may exercise their taxation authority and indicate compliance burden to the taxpayers.
During the council meeting, the governors also decided to work with the ministry on the environment to ensure that the country gets the world recognized forest cover of at least 10 percent.
Kenya has a forest cover of 7.3 percent currently. “The council will collaborate with the ministry to prepare a policy paper on logging and measures to adopt against deforestation,” Mr Nanok said.