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The Nyamira County government has put measures in place to increase revenue collection from Ksh500 million up from Ksh170 million, Chief Officer, Finance, Information and Communication Technology ( ICT) and Economic Planning Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Dominic Barare has disclosed.

The officer said the government has automated the collection, trained revenue officers on e-tax collection and equipped them with  gadgets to foster their work, stressing  the e-tax collection will curb leakages and loss of revenue.

Speaking at Kisii Agricultural Training Centre ( ATC) after a two-day training of 150 revenue officers on digital revenue collection, he said the county will harmonize revenue collection along the county’s common borders to enhance collection.

‘’We want to harmonize the charges on business licenses and taxes along the borders so that they are uniform to avoid conflicts between the traders and the county government’’ Barare explained.

The officer said the county had set a target of Ksh269M last year but managed Ksh167M and linked it to lack of skills on e-tax collection, leakages and tools, the outbreak of Covid-19 and political activities a head of the August 9 general polls.

‘’The officers have pledged to increase the revenue collection from 7 percent( Ksh170m) to 20 percent ( Ksh.500m). The county government is facilitating them to achieve the target’’ Barare noted.

He said the officers have been trained on handling business people and other stakeholders to pay revenue for the county to generate adequate funds to enhance its operations and development projects.

Barare said the county has recruited more revenue officers and increased revenue collection streams, adding the boundary disputes at Getare, Magwagwa, Keroka and Getare markets along the common borders have been addressed by leaders in Kisii and Nyamira counties.

County Executive Committee Member, Finance, ICT and Economic Planning Emily Ongaga said the county will reward the best revenue collectors in June next year and challenged them to work hard to achieve the target.