The Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) collected KES 707.3 billion revenue for the financial year ended June. This is against a revised target of KES719 billion for the same year. The original target for the year was KES 733.4 billion. This is however a 13% growth in collection compared to the KES 635 billion gathered during  the 2010/2011 financial year.

The year also saw KRA register 200,000 new taxpayers, taxes from petroleum declined by 4.1% to KES66.2 billion from KES69 billion the previous year. Domestic taxes recorded a decline of 3.7% to KES130.8 billion compared to KES135.7 billion in 2010/2011.

According to KRA Commissioner-General John Njiraini “Key economic parameters did not behave as forecast and provide a stable platform for revenue mobilisation,” he told Capital Business. He added that petroleum levies and indirect domestic taxes recorded the poorest performance.

There are various other factors that KRA cites that contributed to its failure to hit its revenue target. During the 2011/2012 financial year inflation went high to 18.9% in December as the economic growth went down from 5.7 % the previous year to 4.1%.The exchange rate also fluctuated throughout the year as oil prices constantly remained at a high before they finally began to come down. The government’s move to remove excise tax on kerosene and the prolonged implementation of the common external tariff on rice to accommodate importation at 35% as opposed to 75% as well contributed to target miss.

Remission of duty on imported wheat from 10% to 0%, as well as remission of duty on imported maize to cushion the poor also affected the result.