Kenyan Tax rise by a third totaling to 125.4billion in the month of August.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) collected 125.4 billion tariffs in August, increasing its good performance since June, when it exceeded its target.

This is an increase of more than a third from the 92.8 billion shillings collected in the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the National Treasury.

Government officials have sought to show that KRA’s positive performance reflects a growing business environment, and data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows growth in many economic indicators.

In the first two months of the 2021-2022 financial year, the IRS collected shillings 247.2 billion, a 32 percent jump from 187.25 billion shillings in August last year.

Revenue collection plummeted at the height of the Covid-19 catastrophe last year, forcing the Treasury to cover shortfalls in borrowing.

Rispah Simiyu, KRA’s internal tax commissioner, said earlier this month that in addition to closing loopholes and improving efficiency, tax officials have persuaded more taxpayers to come to the negotiating table, which provided the money held by the disputes.

“Despite the fact that we were collecting taxes even in a small economy, there were very serious cases in court or in the court process,” he said.

“For those who responded to the call, they came to the table and we opened the revenue.”

In total, Exchequer received shillings 457.1 billion, which also included domestic loans of shillings 200.3 billion from treasury and securities bills.

About 65% of the tax collected was used to repay the loans, with the treasury spending 162 billion shillings to repay maturing debts.

Salaries and other recurrent expenditure took 159 billion shillings while development reached 32.8 billion shillings