Treasury doubles its Revenue Goal from Non-Tax Revenues to Ksh. 138.86 billion

The Treasury is making plans to double its revenue goal from non-tax revenues to 138.86 billion shillings from 69.33 billion shillings.

The decision to double its revenue goal comes after KRA was forced to cut its revenue targets for the year to June from 1.81 trillion shillings to 1.7 trillion shillings, due to cash flow problems.

Cash problems within the KRA have been on account of job cuts and lower corporate salaries amid modest economic activity and therefore bringing down avenues for raising taxes.

With plans to double non-tax revenue goals, fees charged on government services and fines are set to increase as an aggressive pursuit of surplus cash.

Some of the non-tax revenues targeted by the Treasury in the new drive to raise extra cash include income from State property including housing and shares in companies such as Safaricom, disposal of government assets and royalties from ventures like mining.

Penalties and forfeitures by the government as well fines originating from cases in court which generated 2.6 billion shillings in the year to June are also some of the non-tax revenues.

For the longest time, the cost of government services has remained unchanged despite the rise in inflation, but this will likely change if the drive to raise non-tax revenue goes through.

Fees paid for accessing government services such as passport fees, work permits, death, birth and marriage certificates could very well go up.

A Treasury official who spoke to Business Daily has also hinted that the Treasury will very likely also aggressively pursue dividends and retained earnings from State corporations.

The new direction by the Treasury depicts the current economic state of the country of stagnant wages, increased layoffs and a depressed corporate salaries.

The corporate sector in Kenya has in the last year experienced reduced profitability forcing companies to fire thousands of employees so as to maintain profit margins.