The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) recorded a 15pc drop in collected tax revenue in the first quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year, collecting only Sh317.7 billion.
The taxman had initially estimated a target of Sh1.56 trillion for the review period ending September 30, 2020.
The National Treasury through a gazette notice revealed that non-tax revenue collections failed to hit the target only collecting Sh24 billion from an estimated Sh66 billion in the period under review.
The drop in the collections is because of measures that were put in place by the government to cushion Kenyans from the COVID-19 effects.
The government has, however, in recent months been relaxing the tax breaks and restrictions to revive the hurt economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
The taxman which has failed to hit its targets for the past few years has also been working to include more Kenyans into the tax bracket while also cracking down on tax evaders.
Just last week, KRA was given the go-ahead to roll out systems that will enable it to net the much-needed revenues from the digital market place like Google, Amazon, Jumia and other online platforms
As a result, the National Treasury cut KRA’s annual tax targets to June 30, 2021 by Sh66 billion to Sh1.568 trillion.
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