KRA Tax Collection: The Kenya Revenue Authority has once again failed to meet its revenue collection target. The latest miss comes as the Kenyan economy enters into an unofficial recession.
KRA missed the collection target by Sh. 60.46 billion in the three months ended September this year.
During the period, tax revenue stood at Sh. 320.311 billion against the Sh. 380.76 billion set by the Treasury.
The taxman missed targets in income tax, value added tax (VAT), excise and import duty streams.
The taxes were also hit by reduced private sector activity during the quarter as measured by Stanbic Bank Kenya’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) which softened to an average of 53.63 compared with an average 55.60 in the previous quarter.
The taxman collected Sh. 159.11 billion from income tax, underperforming Mr Rotich’s target for the quarter by Sh. 32.02 billion.
Payroll taxes missed the target by Sh. 7.15 billion to stand at Sh. 89.8 billion, reflecting a sluggish growth in new job opportunities.
Other income tax streams such as corporation tax also fell short by Sh. 24.87 billion after standing at Sh. 69.31 billion, a 22.35 per cent drop compared with Sh. 84.8 billion a year earlier.
VAT collections stood at Sh. 92.64 billion, underperforming the target by Sh. 18.30 billion, the data shows.
KRA collected Sh. 40.59 billion from VAT on imports, Sh. 10.29 billion short of the target, while VAT levies on local products were Sh. 8.01 billion less than the Sh. 60.06 billion target.
Collections from excise duty underperformed the target by Sh. 8.9 billion to Sh. 42.8 billion, while duty on imports missed the Sh. 27 billion target by Sh. 1.24 billion.