Parking fee defaulters, KRA wants pictures of your number plates

The taxman has ordered parking attendants in Nairobi to photograph number plates of vehicles whose owners have failed to pay parking fees.

The decision is prompted by the rising number of motorists disputing penalties imposed for failure to pay parking fees.

“To address these complaints, parking attendants in county uniform will henceforth photograph the number plates of non-compliant motor vehicles for reference purposes in case of disputes.”

KRA has also banned the physical VIP parking stickers replacing them with a system where a list of all vehicles that qualify for VIP parking have been uploaded into the Nairobi Revenue System (NRS) parking system.

Nairobi County parking attendants. [File, Standard]

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) took over the collection of revenue in Nairobi County last year following an agreement signed between the then-governor Mike Sonko and President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“According to Article 5.5 of the Deed of Transfer of Function from the Nairobi City County Government to the National Government gazette, February 25, 2020, and per section 160 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012...the Nairobi City County Government appoints the Kenya Revenue Authority as the principal-agent for overall revenue collection for all county revenue for twenty-four months, with effect from March 16, 2020” read part of the Gazette Notice signed by Finance Executive Allan Igambi.

Former Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo had proposed that counties contract KRA as their revenue collection agents.

“Counties are collecting less revenue than their potential, and this is because of poor systems and leakages,” she said in August 2019.

“Counties should consider using KRA to collect taxes on their behalf.”