Betting taxes collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) increased to Kes15.1 billion, representing a 30 per cent rise in the last financial year after linking the companies into its system.

Taxes were in the form of excise on betting and withholding on winnings.

On the other hand, excise duty on betting rose 116.2 per cent to Kes 6.64 billion, and withholding tax from winnings jumped to Kes 8.6 billion.

The Authority has attributed its high revenue collection to integrating betting companies into its tax system.

The integration of betting companies with the KRA system began in the middle of October 2022, with the goal of daily collection of the 7.5% excise duty on bets and the 20% withholding tax on wins from the companies.

The programme was in keeping with KRA's promise to simplify tax payments from the industry to increase revenue mobilisation and collection.

KRA has so far merged 36 businesses, which has helped the industry's income increase.

KRA is now integrating the final 87 betting companies into the system.

“Other initiatives under the tax-at-source programme include the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS), which has minimised VAT fraud and enhanced tax revenue,” KRA said.

Additionally, KRA stated that 95,732 VAT-registered taxpayers were onboarded, which led to remittances of Kes 272. 365 billion.