KRA surpasses monthly target as October revenue hits Sh210b

Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General Humprey Wattanga. [File, Standard]

The taxman has surpassed October revenue targets by Sh6.8 billion with domestic taxes recording a performance of 104.6 per cent. 

The taxman collected Sh210 billion in the month against a target of Sh203.5 billion. 

Records from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for the month show the domestic tax department surpassed revenue targets by Sh5.93 billion. 

The department collected Sh136.8 billion against a target of Sh130.9 billion, though  value added tax (VAT) recorded a negative variance of Sh2.3 billion. Domestic excise tax, excise tax on airtime and excise tax on financial services also recorded a drop. 

Customs and Border Control department surpassed itsrevenue targets by Sh941 million.
The department collected Sh73.2 billion compared to the target of Sh72.2 billion. 

“Overall and exchequer targets were surpassed by Sh6,779 million (103.3 per cent performance rate) and Sh243 million (100.1 per cent performance rate) respectively,” KRA said in a statement dated November 5.

Taxes from oil recorded a surplus of Sh3.8 billion in the period, which is a performance rate of 114.3 per cent. From this, Road Maintenance Levy fetched Sh4.3 billion, Sh198 million from excise duty on oil, Petroleum Regulatory Levy Sh187 million and Railway Development Levy with Sh92 million.

“This is explained by the growth in overall oil volumes by 30.7 per cent driven by growths in petrol, diesel and ‘other’ oil volumes by 62.3 per cent, 4.2 per cent and 46.1 per cent respectively,” the taxman said.

The good performance by the Road Maintenance Levy, added KRA, was supported by increase in the levy on fuel from Sh18 per litre to Sh25, which was done through the Legal Notice No. 109 of July 10, 2024.

Under domestic taxes, where the agency surpassed its target by Sh5.97 billion, withholding tax saw an increase of Sh2.4 billion.

KRA attributes this to good performance from both private and public sector, mainly driven by collections from interest, dividends, pension or retirement annuity in the private sector. Withholding tax collections from private sector grew by 27.4 per cent and 41.9 per cent in the public sector.

“Pay As You Earn had a surplus of Sh689 million attributed to remittance from public sector that surpassed its target by Sh1,903 million (and growth of 16.4 per cent). This performance is an indication of exchequer disbursements to various agencies,” KRA said.

Corporation tax recorded a  surplus of Sh155 million. Taxes from betting activities  surpassed their targets by Sh66 million.

This is Sh16 million from betting tax and Sh50 million from excise tax on betting services.

Even with the positive performance, KRA notes that some domestic tax heads had revenue below targets.

PAYE from private sector had a remittance shortfall of Sh1.213 billion.

“This is explained by utilisation of refunds amounting to Sh90.5 million to offset PAYE tax liabilities by a number of LTO taxpayers, reduction in average monthly cash pay per employee from Sh78,034 in Jun-Sept 2023 down to Sh75,781 in Jun-Sept 2024, pointing to effects of ongoing restructuring by various organisations to manage operational
costs,” says the taxman.

Domestic VAT also recorded a deficit of Sh2.4 billion with remittance from a number of sectors dropping by 26.3 per cent.

The sectors include administrative and support, electricity, oil and gas, finance, professional and scientific, transport, and wholesale and retail trade.

“These sectors account for about 33 per cent of normal domestic VAT  in October 2024. Turnover sales from these sectors dropped by 14.7 per cent while inputs had a growth of 0.5 per cent,” KRA said.

“Further, a number of taxpayers utilised credits from previous months to settle current tax liabilities - utilisation of RAVs (Refund Adjustment Vouchers) of Sh738 million affected the tax head’s performance.”