The National Economic and Social Council has proposed that
the Kenya Revenue Authority remain the sole collector of government revenues,
even as the country devolves power to the county governments.
During its 32nd full council meeting, the council said that
county governments should only stick to management activities and instead
called for the government to empower KRA with more resources to collect all
taxes.
“The government should restructure and enhance the capacity
of KRA in order to make it the single revenue collector,” said council’s
chairman, Mr Vimal Shah. He was accompanied by Head of the Civil Service
Francis Kimemia.
Currently the Constitution empowers counties to collect
property and entertainment taxes; they can also impose charges (utility taxes)
for their services such as water supply, garbage collection among others.
Expertise
The KRA Commissioner General has already indicated that they
will offer their revenue collection services to counties like Nairobi given
that they have the expertise and know-how to collect and impose taxes.
He said that the authority had started sending out some of
its officers to various counties in preparation for their new governments.
Finance minister Njeru Githae has seconded the proposal and
urged that the revenue collecting responsibility remain the sole function of
KRA, even calling for it to be given more resources to enable it to undertake
the bigger responsibility as counties come into effect on March 4.
