Model County Revenue Legislation - May 2014

Model County Revenue Legislation May 2014

Publisher	World Bank
Year of Publication
Category	Consitution of Kenya Laws of Kenya Policies and Guidelines
County	All/General
Description	To be effective, county legislation based on the model laws must fit into Kenyas overall legal and regulatory structure, and the model laws have been drafted accordingly. The handbook assumes that it is in the best interests of the county governments to have consistent legislative revenueraising frameworks across the counties. However, a county government can customise the model laws to suit the particular needs of the countyfor example, an agricultural rental value rate is likely to be required in rural areas. The model laws have been drafted so that each county government can customise them with minimal changes, provided that the countygovernment agrees with the policy objective of the model law. The actual language of the model law is not provided as a definitive text. In other words, there is also scope to customise the text of the model laws. However, it is recommended that the text of the model laws should largely be followed unless a different policy objective is intended. The model laws in this handbook are: ? County Model Lawon Property Rates ? County Model Lawon Trade Licences ? County Model Lawon Revenue Administration ? County Model Finance Law. Whatisthepolicyfollowedbythemodellaws? The policy of the model laws closely follows the existing policy of the national legislation that dealt with property rates and single business permits. The model laws have adopted key elements of the national legislation, without consideration of whether policy changes should be made. For example, public land continues to be excluded from the definition of rateable property. Put simply, the policy of the model laws is to adopt the former national system as quickly as possible over this transition period so as to ensure there is express county legislation to protect the collection of revenue by county governments. Property rates and single business permits (trade licences) are very important revenue streams to the counties. The model laws can be considered a safety net to preserve existing revenue collection, but without any attempt to adopt features that will enhance revenue collection in the future. It is expected that counties will do this based on county-specific policies they generate over the years ahead. At the same time, the policy for trade licences has been simplified in one important respect. Previously, a business permit granted by one local authority was sufficient to conduct the business in the area of another local authority. Subject to further consultations, the Model Law on Trade Licences requires a business to obtain a separate trade licence for each county in which the business operates. The policy for the Model Law on County Revenue Administration is also based on national policy. The main purpose of the County Revenue Administration Law is to confer a general power and responsibility for the administration of county revenue laws on a public official who is to be held accountable for that administration. The County Revenue Administration Model Law complements certain provisions in the Public Finance Management Act 2012. The policy framework for the County Model Finance Law mirrors the National Finance Act in that it will set out the amount of any rates, taxes, fees and charges that are payable to the county government, including amendments to existing legislation.
Tags	Public Finance
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