Only Tana River, Kwale, Migori met revenue targets, says budget office
Lamu’s traditional cash source — tourism — has been hit hard due to travel advisories issued by Western countries in the last five years. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
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Those that collected the lowest amounts were Lamu, Tana River and Mandera counties at Sh55.29 million, Sh56.63 million and Sh61.82 million, respectively.
Most counties missed their annual revenue collection targets in the last financial year, the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo has said.
According to the budget implementation report for the 2017/18 financial year, only Tana River, Kwale and Migori counties met their targets.
Migori, with a target of Sh200 million, realised Sh222 million, while Tana-River generated Sh56 million, well above its Sh30 million target.
COLLECTION DECLINE
Kwale, with a Sh275 million target, realised Sh276 million.
However, Migori’s collection declined by 23.4 per cent as it generated Sh290.82 million in the 2016/17 financial year.
The aggregate annual own source revenue target for the 47 devolved governments was Sh49.22 billion against an actual collection of Sh32.49 billion, or 66 per cent of the target.
In the 2016/17 financial year, the total collection was Sh32.52 billion, which was 56.4 per cent of the target.
At Sh10.11 billion, Nairobi generated the highest amount of revenue.
It was followed by Mombasa and Nakuru devolved governments at Sh3.16 billion and Sh2.28 billion respectively.
Those that collected the lowest amounts were Lamu, Tana River and Mandera counties at Sh55.29 million, Sh56.63 million and Sh61.82 million, respectively.
The law gives authority to devolved units to generate money from land, property, businesses and other sources. The drop affects services in counties.
Some counties like Lamu lack lucrative sources of revenue such as factories.
Lamu’s traditional cash source — tourism — has been hit hard due to travel advisories issued by Western countries in the last five years.
“The low performance of local revenue collection should be addressed to avoid budget deficits and facilitate the implementation of activities,” Ms Odhiambo said.
“We advise county governments to develop and implement strategies to mobilise their own sources of revenue.”
In the 2017/18 fiscal year, recurrent expenditure was Sh236.94 billion, or 87.3 per cent of the annual budget.
