Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) reforms at the customs and border control yielded Ksh 82.554 billion, a growth of 10.9 per cent compared to KSh74.439 billion, which they expected to collect in January 2025.
According to a statement by KRA, Customs and Border Control Commissioner Dr. Lilian Nyawanda, performance represents a 27.0 per cent growth compared to the 4.8 per cent growth recorded in the first half of the financial year 2024/2025 (July-December 2024) period.
Nyawanda said the good results were as a result of the reforms which KRA kicked off the second half of the 2024/2025 financial year. She said the collections surpassed its January target of KSh74.439 billion by KSh8.116 billion.
She said the positive revenue performance is attributed to reforms within Customs, including the establishment of the Centralized Release Operations.
“Under this new process, release officers are stationed at a centralized location and allocated customs declarations randomly for release. This approach has significantly resulted to a more objective release process: managing risks and improving revenue mobilization efforts,” she said.
Another key factor that contributed to the strong revenue performance was the growth in non-petroleum taxes of 11.6 per cent, compared to January 2024. Petroleum taxes also had a strong performance registering a growth 55.9 per cent against the same period last year.
This growth in petroleum taxes was largely driven by a 6.6 per cent increase overall oil volumes, with a significant growth in petrol (89.7 per cent) and diesel (65.0 per cent) resulting in above-target performance across various tax heads, including value added taxes (VAT) oil, excise duty oils, and fuel levies (PDL, RML, PRL, and RDL).
The results, Custom boss, noted reflect the ongoing commitment by KRA to improve revenue mobilization efforts and ensure that revenue targets are consistently met, contributing to the growth and stability of the nation’s economy.
