The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) announced that it had missed its half-year tax collection target by Sh88.3 billion, netting Ksh857.8 billion over the period.
Data from the National Treasury shows that KRA failed to hit the target for all the tax categories, with the biggest miss being registered under income tax.
This even as Treasury spent Ksh1.14 trillion on recurrent, development expenditures.
KRA is expected to raise Ksh1.8 Trillion by end of June 2020, according to Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani.
Yatani said KRA had been given all the necessary support, including financial.
A sluggish economy saw profits for companies dwindle and employees fired, a development that affected the collection of taxes from employers and employees.
Tax collection as of December last year, however, rose by 18.8 per cent from Ksh722.3 billion in December 2018.
KRA collected Ksh367.4 billion from businesses and employees, missing its target for the period on Income Tax by Ksh25.9 billion.
Income tax includes Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) that is levied on employees’ salaries and corporate income tax, charged at a rate of 30 per cent on companies’ profits.
Income tax experienced a 12.9 per cent jump from Ksh393.3 billion that was collected in the same period in 2018.
The Treasury data also shows that KRA collected Ksh103.3 billion from excisable goods such as beer, tobacco, airtime, financial services. This is against a target of Ksh127.9 billion.
Value-added tax, also known as consumption tax and which is charged at 16 per cent, gave the Exchequer Ksh211.5 billion against a target of Ksh224.6 billion.
But other revenues, including fines and fees, went up by 108.5 per cent, earning KRA Ksh123.9 billion.
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