Cashless system raises tax collection in Nyeri County

The newly introduced cashless system seems to be bearing fruit as the Nyeri County has managed to raise its revenue collection by up to 60 per cent. Following the successful story from the neighbouring Kiambu, the county has also automated its parking fee collection.

Kiambu has been identified as one of the successful story in sealing the revenue collection loopholes with its daily collection hitting the Sh2 million mark compared to Sh300,000 collected before the cashless system was introduced.

In Nyeri, the county government has doubled revenue collection since its partial implementation of the system that started with the collection from the single business permits in March 2014.

Finance Executive Martin Wamwea said the county signed an agreement with Equity Bank to provide financial solutions that use technology to collect revenue in an effort to seal leakages in its revenue stream.

"Currently, we are collecting fees from business permits through the cashless system and it has proved successful. We are now in the process of including parking fees, land rates and market collections," Mr Wamwea said.

Between January to April 2014 the county collected Sh138 million while in the same period this year, the county collected Sh280 million, which is a 51 per cent increase.

Also, from October to December 2013, the county collected a paltry Sh71 million while in 2014 the same period, the county collected Sh117 million from business permits translating to 65 per cent increase.

"We expect that once the cashless system is fully implemented for all our current revenue streams such as parking fees and land rates, the revenue collected will increase dramatically," Wamwea said.

Early this week, motorists were caught unawares after they were told they could not pay parking fees in cash, and were directed to pay through a prepaid card.

Some of the motorists complained of not being informed in advance of the changes and accused the county government of ambushing them.

Naphtaly Nduhiu, a motorist, lauded the new system but blamed the county government of the ambushing.

"I don't understand why the county government decided to mount such an ambitious programme without even caring to put adverts in the media," Mr Nduhiu complained.

He said like many other motorists, he was not aware of the new payment system and came to learn of it from a parking attendant a few seconds after parking.

"I had not carried my personal document, like the identity card which must be produced for one to be registered," he added.

Others motorists like James Maina said move was inconveniencing.