Kenya Revenue Authority headquaters at Times Tower.[Photo/the-star.co.ke]
The Kenya revenue Authority is banking on expected rise in government spend on development projects from January and a pick-up in private sector investments to boost revenue collections.
Collections in the first five months of this financial year, which starts in July, have underperformed targets set
KRA however, expects a stronger performance in the second half – January to June – as has been the case historically.
A confluence of reduced public expenditure on development and a sharp fall in investment by the private sector has hurt tax collections by the KRA, which has a revised target of Sh1.44 trillion this financial year to June 2018.
“We know it’s been a tough year. It’s been a tough year for business, it’s also been a tough year when it comes to revenue collection. But despite those challenges that we have had, we have been able to grow revenue by 9.6 per cent in five months to November, and we consider that to be descent in the circumstances,” KRA commissioner-general John Njiraini said.
“However, our five-year average growth in revenue has been 14.05 per cent. So we are lagging behind to that extent.”
The actual revenue figures for November are yet to be released.