The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Customs and Border Department has registered a revenue of over Ksh.50 billion at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
In a statement on Monday, July 24, KRA revealed that for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, they recorded a revenue growth of 10.12% at Kenya’s leading international airport.
This comes after the taxman collected ksh.49.063 billion against a target of 46.991 billion, representing 104% performance rate.
Furthermore, cargo handled at the JKIA has significantly increased following the reopening of the of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This has enabled the KRA to collect Ksh.5.388 billion against s target of Ksh.4.806 billion from the air navigation service charge, which is levied on planes landing at the airport.
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The revenue collection reflects a performance rate of 112, the collection represents a 31.91% growth in revenue compared to the same period in the fiscal year 2021/2022.
High number of passengers
Moreover, revenue collected from air passenger service charge at JKIA also recorded a tremendous growth of 53.33% compared to financial year 2021/2022. The growth is attributed to an increase in the number of air passengers.
According to the economic survey 2023, the total number of passengers handled at Kenyan airports increased from Ksh.6.703 million in 2021 to Ksh.10.238 million in2022.
This was attributed to an increase in the number of international and domestic passengers by 80.4 per cent and 32.1 per cent, respectively.
Additionally, passenger traffic at JKIA increased by 65% from 3.974 million in 2021 to 6.556 million in 2022.
This led to a collection of Ksh.11.570 billion from the air passengers services charge at JKIA against a target of Ksh.8.037 billion. This translates to an excellent performance rate of 114%.
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Performance Attributes
The excellent performance is attributable to the various initiatives that have facilitated passengers and seamless clearance cargo at the JKIA.
The initiatives include the installation of baggage and cargo scanners, as well as introduction of automated risk management module in ICMS.
Therefore, the scanners facilitate faster clearance of cargo at the ports of entry. It now takes a minute to scan a container and approximately five minutes to analyze an image of the cargo contents.
This has in turn addressed congestion at the entry points.
Consequently, KRA has continued to invest in other non-technological interventions to enhance its mandate under C&BC.
One such measure is the enhancement of staff capacity at the various points of entry, including the airport.
The C&BC department now has a bigger labor force to effectively execute its mandate of trade facilitation and revenue collection.
