New tax measures and higher economic output in Kenya have driven the government’s revenue collection by 18.7% to 155.06 billion shillings ($1.07 billion) in July 2023, compared to 130.6 billion shillings a year earlier.

The July collections exceeded monthly collections in six of the 12 months in the financial year 2022/23, but fell 29.7% from the record 220.6 billion shillings collected in June, Business Daily newspaper reported, citing data from the National Treasury.

The Kenya Revenue Authority's collection jumped following the doubling of value-added tax (VAT) on fuel to 16% from July 1. Other new taxes included a 1.5% housing levy on gross pay of all workers and increasing turnover tax to 3% to the current 1%.           

(Editing by Brinda Darasha; brinda.darasha@lseg.com)