County to establish own tax collection agency

By LUKE ANAMI

Kakamega County: The County Government of  Kakamega has unveiled a bill that, if passed, will allow it to form an agency  with similar mandate as the Kenya Revenue Authority.

At a county planning meeting which was attended by the county Executive team, members of its Public Service Board, Members of the National Assembly from all the nine constituencies in the county and the Governor Wycliffe Oparanya announced the formation of an agency that will be responsible for the county revenue collection.

The county estimates it will be able to collect more than Sh2 billion in the next two years once the agency is in place.

Sharing formula

“We have successfully prepared our budget and we are looking forward for funds to start flowing probably this week,” Oparanya said when he met all county staff at Bishop Stam Pastoral Centre on the outskirts of Kakamega town.

“Revenue will be very critical according to the sharing formula. To streamline revenue collection and run our development plans, we intend to bring a bill to the County Assembly with a proposal to form an agency.”

The Kakamega Revenue Bill, which will be supported by a Financial Bill, will also take into account bylaws that have since been repealed under the Local Government Act. The two bills give the county powers to run the financial matters of the county in similar roles as KRA.

Oparanya said the agency’s role is to streamline the operations of revenue collection and bring good governance in the financial management of the county resources.

“It is not proper for the county Finance minister to go around with a receipt book collecting money. Otherwise, we will be encouraging and devolving corruption. We have also noted that since we printed our own receipts, revenue allocation has already increased by more than 12 per cent,” said Oparanya, who was accompanied by his deputy Dr Philip Kutima and county minister for Finance and Planning Paul Otsola.

Similar laws

“We intend to streamline our revenue collection so that in the next two years we can meet recurrent expenditure and direct national revenue for development,” he said.

Following revenue allocation by the Micah Cheserem’s Commission for Revenue Allocation, Kakamega received Sh7.3 billion from the national government. The county is expected to generate revenue from within to meet its budget.

“It is important that we enact new legislation similar to what national government has in order to effectively manage the functions of finance in the county,” Otsola said. “We will also come up with a Property Bill to show what tariffs are applicable.”