Fuel Taxes increased in Amended Finance Bill

The government plans to introduce a new set of taxes under the amended Finance Bill of 2024, after dropping several controversial proposals on Tuesday, June 18.

The amended Finance Bill has proposed to raise the Road Maintenance Levy (RDL) by 38%, from Ksh18 per liter of petrol and diesel to Ksh25 per liter. The new proposal was initially proposed by Roads CS Kipchumba Murkomen while presenting his views before the Finance Committee.

The National Assembly’s Finance Committee noted that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) had recorded a significant drop in the amount collected for the RDL. 

The drop was attributed to the drop in fuel consumption after a significant increase in fuel prices in the Financial year 2023/2024 which was as a result of a weak Kenyan shilling and an increase in the VAT on fuel from 8 to 16%. 

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Ironically, the Finance Committee proposed increasing the RDL by Ksh18 - hoping it will result in more revenues collected by the KRA. At the current fuel prices, a litre of petrol will move from Ksh189 to Ksh196 while diesel will move from Ksh173 to Ksh180. Kerosene will also increase from Ksh163 to Ksh170. 

“To help raise sufficient funds to maintain and repair roads across the country the committee recommends an increase of the levy pursuant to Section 3 of the Road Maintenance Levy Fund Act,” the committee recommends in its report.

Money collected from the RDL is used in the maintenance of roads and highways, which according to the government, has been neglected as a result of reducing revenues. 

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Earlier proposals that would have allowed the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to access Kenyans' data without following the rules of the Data Protection Act have been scrapped by the parliamentary committee. 

The committee advised KRA to use the existing legal framework which allows it to access personal details such as bank accounts and transaction history by taking a court order. 

Other contentious proposals that initially received opposition and have been maintained in the amended report include:

• Increase of Import Declaration Fee from 2.5% to 3.0%
• Introduction of Withholding Tax on Infrastructure Bonds. 
• Introduction of Withholding Tax on goods supplied to public entities
• Exemption of public officers' reimbursement of expenses incurred in asset purchase in the course of official duties.
• Removal of the Kes 24,000 threshold for payments such as management/ professional fees made to residents with regard to withholding tax.

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