Travel advisories to cut county’s revenue
What you need to know:
- “The Maasai Mara is the main source of revenue but we need to exploit other avenues of raising cash within the reserve, apart from depending on gate collections alone,” said Ms Munge.
Narok County may lose up to 23 per cent of its revenue due to travel advisories issued to tourists from the US, Britain and Australia.
Reading the budget to the county assembly yesterday, Finance executive member Lenah Munge said the devolved unit would streamline its revenue sources to cover for losses caused by the slump in the tourism sector. Tourism is the main source of revenue for the county.
Ms Munge said the county expected to collect a total of Sh3.9 billion from local sources, with Sh2.5 billion of the amount coming from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
She said the county would, however, implement various development projects factored in the budget as it hopes streamlining revenue collection from other sectors will pay off.
“The Maasai Mara is the main source of revenue but we need to exploit other avenues of raising cash within the reserve, apart from depending on gate collections alone,” said Ms Munge.
She proposed that the county should increase charges for tourists visiting the Maasai Mara during the peak season and lower them during the low period.
With the increase in the number of health institutions in the county, Narok hopes to collect more revenue through fees charged for services.
The devolved unit intends to charge more in cess on fresh agricultural produce, quarries and mines. Property rates and charges for liquor licences and business permits have also been raised.
The county’s total expenditure for the year will be Sh8.5 billion, with Sh4.6 billion being recurrent. Some Sh3.9 billion will be for development expenditure.
The county assembly has been allocated Sh566 million, out of which Sh240 million will be given out to members as loans. The budget was welcomed by the majority of the leaders.
