The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has recorded improved taxes for November 2023, even as cumulative taxes for the current financial year hit Ksh1.03 trillion as of December 8.

KRA collected Ksh180.714 billion in November 2023 up from Ksh156.095 billion collected in November 2022.

"Revenue collection has progressively increased in the last 5 months (July –November 2023/24) after KRA collected Kshs 963.746 billion compared to Kshs 856.646 billion collected in the same period last financial year, representing a growth of 12.5 per cent," the taxman stated.

However, during the period, there was a significant depreciation of the Kenyan shilling against the US dollar by 24.7 per cent in November 2023 and 22.0 per cent in July to November 2023.

"This, coupled with increasing prices of key products like oil, has the effect of driving down import demand. While import values (in Kenya Shilling terms) grew by 36.0% and 11.0% in November 2023 and July – November 2023 respectively, in dollar terms, the growth for the month was subdued to 9.0%, and a decline of 9.2% was recorded cumulatively," KRA added.

"Revenue performance was also affected by low domestic demand as indicated by the slowed Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) that averaged 47.18 points in July to November 2023 down from 48.66 points in July to November 2022."

KRA indicates that there was a decline in Bank profitability by 4.9 per cent as of September 2023 due to tight financial markets marked by an increase in lending rates and interbank rates.

Customs recorded the second-highest monthly collection in the history of KRA with revenue collections amounting to Ksh72.116 billion, a growth of 17.6 per cent over Ksh61.322 billion realized in November 2022.