Prices of various items have skyrocketed after the government moved to implement the Finance Act, 2021, which has come into force after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Finance Bill into law.
The Finance Act, 2021, introduced amendments to various tax-related acts of parliament and related statutes in the public finance sector.
- Airtime, data and SMS Following an amendment to the Finance Act, 2018, the government increased excise duty on telephone and internet data services from 15% to 20% effective July 1.
- Telecommunications giant Safaricom has increased the price of voice calls, data, short message service (SMS) and home fibre. The changes will affect all pre-pay subscribers under both the Uwezo and Blaze tariffs. Safaricom calls now cost KSh 4..87 per minute in peak hours (8am to 10pm) and KSh 2.50 per minute in off-peak hours (10pm to 8am) from KSh 3.50 and KSh 1.80 respectively before the implementation of the new tax.
Mobile data cost has been revised to KSh 4.87 per MB from KSh 3.50. The lowest (bronze) bandwidth offer of 8 megabytes (Mbps) per second will now cost KSh 2,999 while the premium (diamond package) 100 Mbps will cost KSh 12,499 up from KSh 2900 and KSh 11,999 respectively.
M-Pesa is an overdraft facility for all M-Pesa users. The service allows customers who do have enough money in their accounts to complete M-Pesa transactions Fuliza daily fees will now include the 20% excise duty while the access fees will remain at 1%.