Reforms at the Kenya Revenue Authority’s (KRA) Customs and Border Control are beginning to yield notable results, after Customs taxes reached a historic monthly performance of Ksh82.554 billion in January 2025.
Customs kicked off the second half of the 2024/2025 financial year on an upward trajectory, after surpassing its January target of Ksh74.439 billion by collecting a surplus of Ksh8.116 billion, reflecting a performance rate of 110.9%.
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.
Commissioner for Customs and Border Control Dr Lilian Nyawanda says the positive revenue performance is attributed to reforms, 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.
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Dr Nyawanda said this approach has significantly resulted to a more objective release process of managing risks and improving revenue mobilisation efforts.
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 55.9% against the same period last year.
This growth in petroleum taxes was largely driven by a 6.6% increase 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 (PDL, RML, PRL, and RDL).
Dr Nyawanda said 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.
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