Kisii County Governor James Ongwae today morning, assented to the Finance bill 2020 that will become a Finance Act after gazettement.

Ongwae who was accompanied by the County Assembly leadership led by Speaker Hon. David Kombo announced that the act will bring on new revenue streams to broaden tax base.

He thanked the assembly for preparing the crucial document in time after a stakeholders engagement throughout the county.

The Governor said the county reduced taxes across board to cushion tax payers against COVID-19 pandemic adding that the act is simplified to enable the taxpayers interpret easily.

“The revenue streams have been categorized according to departments to enable every department take part in revenue matters. The county has redesigned the finance act to make it simple and remove ambiguities making it easy to follow,” he said.

He said the department has taken various measures to enhance revenue collections among them the introduction of a USSD code *697# to minimize human interaction hence reducing leakages and making revenue collection convenient.

“We have targets which have been cascaded to daily, to ensure that officers are accountable on their daily payment,” said Ongwae.

The speaker thanked the house, especially the budget committee led by the chairman Dennis Ombachi for facilitating the process.

“The new act has clustered sub counties into four and created regions within the municipality to enhance compliance,” said Kombo.

Also present were the majority leader Timothy Ogugu, minority leader James Ondari, Chief Whip John Ombati, chairman budget committee Denis Ombachi, acting Chief Officer in charge of revenue Bernard Omosa.