Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko can have a sigh of relief after he was let off the hook by The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in a Ksh3.5 billion tussle.
In a statement, the governor announced that KRA, on Wednesday, September 2, agreed to lift with immediate effect the Agency Notice against the Nairobi City County Government over a contentious 3.5 billion tax bill.
The agreement was reached after a meeting involving the county boss Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, Elizabeth Meyo and the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Accounts Management, Daniel Kagira.
In return, Sonko agreed to pay the authority Ksh242 million that the county owed in taxes and charges.
"In return and to show goodwill, my administration committed to make an immediate payment of 242 million shillings owed in taxes and collection charges, pending a comprehensive audit and reconciliation that will be concluded in the next 10 days," read a statement from Sonko.
He further disclosed that the authority commended his administration for continuously remitting their taxes and he vowed to cooperate with KRA in future.
"KRA commended my administration's commitment to our tax obligations, especially the 3 billion shillings we paid last year owing to tax arrears incurred by previous administrations," he added.
In 2019, Sonko was among governors that were on KRA's radar over none-payment of taxes that had accumulated to Ksh13 billion.
In September that year, the authority met Sonko over the debt that had hit Ksh5.8 billion.
In their meeting, it was determined that some of the unpaid bill had accrued during the previous county government leadership.
The tax arrears comprised Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Withholding Income Tax and Withholding VAT.
Other counties that had an issue with Kenya Revenue Authority included Migori, Homa Bay, Turkana, Kilifi, Murang’a and Kiambu.
