Counties to get 10.8B shs more in new law

By KBC Reporter

Counties will share out 291 billion shillings in the next financial year should the Division of Revenue Bill 2017 be passed in its current form.

This is 10.8 billion shillings more than the 280 billion shillings they were allocated in the current financial year.

The counties will also get conditional grants and allocations pushing the total figure to 323.7 billion shillings.

Article 203 of the constitution says revenue sharing between the national and county governments ”for every financial year shall not be less than 15% of all revenue collected by the national government.”

The council of governors over time has demanded for an increase in this allocation to a least 40 percent to support devolved functions such as health, agriculture, youth polytechnics, roads and other core functions.

In the proposed 2017/2018 financial year, the budget and appropriation committee has recommended that counties be allocated 291.1 billion shillings as equitable share based on the 1.5 trillion shilling audited revenue collected during the 2013/2014 financial year, translating to 31.12 percent.

The 47 devolved units will also receive additional county conditional allocation amounting to 20.4 billion shillings.

Counties are expected to receive 15 percent from the fuel levy for repair and maintenance of classes E,F,G and non-classified roads.

The Division of Revenue Bill 2017 proposes that counties be allocated 7.87 billion shillings of all the fuel levy collected.

The devolved units are also expected to receive 12.5 billion shillings in loans and grants from the national government.

In the Division of Revenue Bill 2017, conditional allocation amounts to 12.5 billion shillings of which 4.5 billion shillings is for leasing medical equipment, 4.2 billion shillings for level five hospitals, 900 million shillings for compensation of counties for not charging user fees in public health facilities, 605 million shillings for construction of county headquarters and 2 billion shillings for rehabilitation of youth polytechnics.

This pushes the total amount that counties are expected to share out to 323.75 billion shillings if parliament passes the Division of Revenue Bill 2017 in its current form.

However, this is about 8 billion shillings less than the 331.6 billion shillings that the Commission on Revenue Allocation had proposed to be allocated to the devolved units.