Reforms at the Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) Customs and Border Control are beginning to yield notable results as Customs taxes reached a historic monthly performance of Sh82.554 billion in January 2025.
KRA Commissioner, Customs and Border Control, Dr. Lilian Nyawanda, said that Customs kicked off the second half of the 2024/2025 financial year on an upward trajectory after surpassing its January target of Sh74.439 billion by collecting a surplus of Sh8.116 billion, reflecting a performance rate of 110.9%.
Dr. Nyawanda said that this performance represents a 27.0% growth compared to the 4.8% growth recorded in the first half of the financial year 2024/2025 (July-December 2024) period.
“This positive revenue performance is attributed to reforms within Customs, including the establishment of the Centralised Release Operations. Under this new process, release officers are stationed at a centralised location and allocated customs declarations randomly for release. This approach has significantly resulted in a more objective release process of managing risks and improving revenue mobilisation efforts,” said Dr. Nyawanda.
She explained that another key factor that contributed to the strong revenue performance was the growth in non-petroleum taxes of 11.6%, compared to January 2024. Petroleum taxes also had a strong performance, registering a growth of 55.9% against the same period last year.
According to Dr. Nyawanda, this growth in petroleum taxes was largely driven by a 6.6% increase in overall oil volumes, with a significant growth in petrol (89.7%) and diesel (65.0%) resulting in above-target performance across various tax heads, including VAT oil, excise duty oils, and fuel levies, among others.
“These results reflect the ongoing commitment by KRA to improve revenue mobilisation efforts and ensure that revenue targets are consistently met, contributing to the growth and stability of the nation’s economy,” said Dr. Nyawanda.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a