KRA falls short of half-year revenue target by Sh88b

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) missed its half-year tax collection target by Sh88.3 billion, netting Sh857.8 billion over the period.

A new update by the National Treasury shows that KRA failed to hit the target for all the tax categories, with the biggest miss being registered under income tax.

This even as Treasury spent Sh1.14 trillion on recurrent, development expenditures. 

KRA, which Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani said had been given all the necessary support, including financial, is expected to raise Sh1.8 trillion by the end June.

The ministry had projected that it would spend Sh1.3 trillion by December 2019.

A sluggish economy saw profits for companies dwindle and employees fired, a development that affected the collection of taxes from employers and employees.

Tax collection as of December last year, however, rose by 18.8 per cent from Sh722.3 billion in December 2018.

KRA collected Sh367.4 billion from businesses and employees, missing its target for the period on Income Tax by Sh25.9 billion.

Income tax includes Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) that is levied on employees’ salaries and corporate income tax, charged at a rate of 30 per cent on companies’ profits.

Income tax experienced a 12.9 per cent jump from Sh393.3 billion that was collected in the same period in 2018.

The Treasury data also shows that KRA collected Sh103.3 billion from excisable goods such as beer, tobacco, airtime, financial services. This is against a target of Sh127.9 billion.

Value-added tax, also known as consumption tax and which is charged at 16 per cent, gave the Exchequer Sh211.5 billion against a target of Sh224.6 billion.

But other revenues, including fines and fees, went up by 108.5 per cent, earning KRA Sh123.9 billion.