County hits boda boda riders with more taxes

Vihiga County Government has turned to boda boda riders in a bid to raise funds to fill in the gaps of its Sh5.6 billion budget.

A notice from the Finance department has asked boda boda riders to pay Sh200 not later than 10th of every month.
The over 5000 individuals have enjoyed not paying taxes since the former regime exempted them and have been operating freely in various markets in the region.

“Take note that the Vihiga County Finance Act 2019 was gazetted on December 16, 2019 and is thus effective. It is now a legal document that requires every boda boda to pay their monthly sticker fees of Sh200 by 10th day of every month,” the notice reads.

It adds, “You are hereby requested to pay your monthly sticker fee by February 10, 2020.”

During this financial year, the county has projected to collect Sh192 million from its own sources while getting Sh4.4 billion in equitable share, among other grants.

In a recent county meeting, Senator George Khaniri questioned successive failure by the county to raise own source revenue.

Khaniri said currently, according to its budget, the county cannot exist without funding from the national government because own source revenue is not even 10 per cent of its total budget.

He argued that before the establishment of county governments in 2013, some of the current counties were City, Town, County or Municipal Councils and collected enough revenue that made them offer services to the people under the then Ministry of Local Government.

The senator noted that it was expected devolution would improve revenue collection, and it definitely has, only that money collected is not registered and deposited in the right county account but numerous accounts, against the law.

“Even though counties are entitled to an equitable share of revenue raised nationally, they are also obligated to collect own source revenue. It has been observed that generally, counties have successively failed to collect the projected own source revenue since the dawn of devolution in 2013,” Khaniri said.

He added, “In most cases, counties are under-performing when compared to defunct local governments. The situation has been blamed on several factors such as over-projection, administrative inefficiency, gaps in policy and legislation, lack of support from the public and corruption.”

In Vihiga County, for instance, the former municipal council collected more than Sh300 million annually, but the county government has never collected over Sh150 million in local revenues over the years.