KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini says the faster growth especially in the third quarter was largely driven by the domestic taxes/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 19 – The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has recorded a revenue growth of 11.7 percent in the last nine months ending March 31 this year to Sh842.5 billion.
This compares to Sh743.9 billion collected in the first nine months of the 2014/2015 financial year which was a growth of 10.8 percent.
KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini says the faster growth especially in the third quarter was largely driven by the domestic taxes.
“The third quarter this year has actually worked very well for us. It is part of the reason why we have been able to enhance the growth up to the end of March to 11.7 percent as to what we had in December of 9.8 percent,” Njiraini said on Tuesday during a KRA performance media briefing.
However, the authority missed its target of Sh911.5 billion for the nine months which Njiraini attributes to slow growth in customs taxes especially during the first six months of the financial year ending December 2015.
“One notable thing to see is that you find very strong growth in some areas, like in Domestic VAT and fairly depressed growth in other areas like customs. In short what we have seen in 2015/2016 is mixed performance,” Njiraini explained.
Some of the domestic taxes that saw improvement include Domestic VAT which grew by 23.2 percent to Sh112.6 billion compared to Sh91 billion same period last year, surpassing its target of Sh104.9 billion.
Domestic excise grew by 22.1 percent to Sh34 billion compared to Sh28 billion last year.
“Consistent strong performance for VAT and Domestic Excise was driven by VAT Tax base expansion as well as county mobilisation. There was also the implementation of Excise Goods Management System which has helped combat illicit business in the country,” he explained.
On Custom Taxes, there were revenue drops in the Import VAT, Import Declaration Fees and Railways Development Levy by 1.7 percent, 4.3 percent and 10 percent respectively. However Road Maintenance Levy Fund saw a huge growth of 48 percent to Sh32 billion compared to Sh21 billion last period.
The authority targets a overall growth Sh1.2 trillion this financial year which ends in June this year.
