The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced a 6.7 percent revenue increase in the 2022-23 financial year to maintain its upward trajectory in its collections for the fifth consecutive year.

According to the taxman, despite the economic shocks its collection hit Sh2.16 trillion in the year which is an increase from Sh1.58 trillion in the 2018-19 financial year.

This, it says, is a growth of 37 percent representing Sh586.2 billion.

“The collection for the financial year 2022-23 was Sh2.03 trillion therefore higher than what was collected in the financial year 2021-22 by Sh135 billion,” a statement from the acting Commissioner General Rispah Simiyu reads.

The revenue performance, she notes, is attributed to the slowed domestic economic growth in 2022 dropping to 4.8 percent from 7.6 percent in 2021.

“This mirrors the World real GDP growth that decelerated to 3.4 per cent in 2022 from a growth of 6.0 per cent in 2021,” she says.

Simiyu notes that the decelerated domestic economic growth was due to the adverse impact of multiple shocks that affected the economy, including prolonged drought, and international conflicts that disrupted the supply chain among others.

This is the second year in a row that KRA has surpassed the two trillion mark.

The collection, the authority says, signifies a performance rate of 95.3 per cent against the target.

Simiyu further states that the exchequer revenue grew by 6.9 per cent translating to a performance rate of 95.1 per cent against the target.

Exchequer revenue constitutes all the mainstream government revenues which is taxes on International trade and transactions, Excise taxes, taxes on income, profits and capital gains, taxes on goods and services, and property taxes.