Our revenue has increased, say county bosses

Governors have denied what they described as persistent rumours accusing them of collecting less revenue than what municipal and town councils before them used to collect.

During a forum on revenue collection, the governors said they were doing much better than their predecessors.

Supporting the governors, members of county assemblies said former county councils employed crude methods to coerce citizens to pay taxes, adding that these methods could not stand in the current constitutional dispensation.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Meru's Peter Munya explained that the counties' only undoing was setting unrealistic targets in the first year of devolution. They said confusion over the targets may have led to the misconception.

"In the first year in my county, we budgeted for Sh3 billion not knowing the challenges ahead. We ended up collecting Sh350 million and using that experience, we revised our budget this year to Sh800 million. We have collected Sh800 million," said Mr Oparanya.

Oparanya denounced the practice of excluding national taxes from county considerations, saying the taxpayer is one. He said the national government had not created a conducive environment in which the tax base could be widened at the counties.

Mr Munya warned against the dangers of double taxation if the county and national governments did not agree on a harmonised legal framework on taxation. 

He complained of politicisation of tax, especially in the counties, and failure by the national government to release some of the taxes to the counties.

Double jeopardy

"The Horticulture Development Authority continues to collect taxes for horticulture products despite those functions having been devolved, and you cannot go on as a county and tax the same because that would be double jeopardy for the taxpayer," Munya said.

The validity and legal standing of some of the taxes counties are charging came into question as experts and senators dismissed them.

Senator Billow Kerrow said counties could only charge entertainment and property charge taxes, nothing more. He said the rest were fees.

"They should not introduce any more taxes because most of them would be illegal," he said.

Commission on Revenue Allocation officer Raphael Munavu said the commission believed there were more opportunities for counties to raise their revenue collection.

During the discussion, the Senate took a backlash from participants for doing little to facilitate counties to grow their tax base. Devolution expert Mutakha Kangu said senators were asleep on the job when it came to facilitating counties with appropriate laws.

He said the Senate had also failed to create harmony between counties in as far as revenue sources were concerned.

"Why is Narok County allowed to collect revenue from game reserves whereas Kajiado, Makueni, Meru and Taita Taveta among others are not? This is the job we gave to the Senate," he said.