Counties set to get Sh420b from Treasury in next financial year
By John Otini, January 20, 2023County governments stand to get up to Sh420 billion from the exchequer in the next financial year compared to Sh407 billion in the current financial year, the latest Budget Policy Statement shows.
They will receive Sh380 billion directly from the exchequer and Sh33 billion from grants, Sh7.5 billion equalisation fund and Sh776 million for construction of county headquarters. “Based on a revenue projection of Sh2,566 billion in FY 2023/24, Sh2,178.5 billion has been allocated to National Government, Sh380.0 billion to County Governments as equitable revenue share to the two levels of Government and Sh7.5 billion to the Equalization Fund,” Treasury said.
Equitable share
The proposal to increase the equitable share to Sh380 billion is equivalent to 26.8 per cent of the last audited accounts (Sh1.414 trillion for FY 2017/18) and as approved by Parliament. “The proposed allocation therefore meets the requirement of Article 203(2) of the Constitution,” Treasury said.
All the County governments except Nairobi City County and Kiambu complied with the legal requirement to allocate at least 30 per cent of their approved budget to development in the last financial year.
The County Government of Marsabit spent 41.8 per cent on development, Uasin Gishu 37.1 per cent and Nakuru 35.3 per cent.
On the other hand, a total of 35 County governments spent less than 30 per cent on development despite set aside the money due to low absorption of funds.
Annual target
During the last financial year, County Governments were able to raise a total of Sh35.9 billion in Own Source Revenue against an annual target of Sh60.4 billion. Turkana, Lamu, Vihiga and Migori met the local revenue targets with rest failing to hit the targets.