Nairobi County governor Johnson Sakaja has defended his new tax proposals in the Nairobi County Finance Bill 2023.
Speaking on Sunday July 16, Sakaja said his administration has increased tax in some areas in a bid to raise Ksh20 billion in revenue for the financial year 2023/2024.
Sakaja noted that his administration had reduced levies including parking fee for trucks from Ksh. 3,000 down to Ksh. 1,000 and licenses for PSVs that don’t terminate to town which he says had dropped by half.
“We are alive to the fact things are tough, but we need to provide these services,” said Sakaja.
Further, Sakaja stated that his government has also fulfilled the wish of the hawkers who asked for business space and agreed to pay taxes.
He said they have created backstreets within the town for hawkers to do business without interferences by the county officials.
“Once they are there, they have to pay some amount, if we ask for Ksh.50 from hawkers selling items worth Ksh,200, 300 or even 1000, I think it makes sense,” he said.
Public Participation
However, Sakaja noted thar the Finance Bill is currently on the floor of the assembly with public participation commencing soon.
Additionally, he said they are open to listen to the opinions of the locals on the proposals.
“Members of the public are free to come and give us more ideas on how we can balance between funding our budget and also the hard economic times,” he said.
Sakaja pushes to review parking Fees
In the proposals, county has introduced an automated parking fees where motorists will pay Ksh. 100 for the first one hour and Ksh.50 per hour afterwards. This is an increase from the current Ksh.200 per day.
Tuk-tuk operators will pay Ksh.2,000 while motorcycles will pay Ksh.1,000 parking fee monthly for parking fee outside the city center.
The Bill also divides the city into two Zones I and II. Zone I covers Karen, Lavington, Eastleigh, Kijabe Street, Community, Ngara Highridge, Industrial Area, Gigiri, Kilimani, Upper Hill, Westlands, Muthaiga and Gikomba.
Zone II consists of the other areas that are not under Zone I or are not automated.
The parking fee for saloon cars in non-automated in Zone I will increase from Ksh.200 to Ksh.300. Charges for vans and pickups will jump to Ksh.500 from the current Ksh.200 while lories weighing more than 5 tones will pay Ksh.3,000 up from Ksh. 1,000.
Licenses under Sakaja rule
Transport Saccos will pay Ksh.50,000 annually while saccos with more than 51 vehicles will pay Ksh. 200,000 up from Ksh.160,000.
License fee for Saccos with between 31 to 50 vehicles has doubled from Ksh.50,000 to Ksh.100,000.
Additionally, hawkers and small traders are set to part with Ksh. 50 up from Ksh.20 and Ksh.30 respectively.
Mobile toilets will pay Ksh.5,000 to Ksh.15,000 depending on the number of toilets.
The license fee for alcohol selling premises will cost Ksh.50,000, double the current rates.
Mortuary and Burials
The bill proposes Ksh.500 daily charge for all bodies at City Mortuary for the first 10 days and Ksh.700 for the subsequent days.
Embalming will cost Ksh.3,000 for adults and Ksh.2,500 for children and infants.
For postmortem examination, adults will pay Ksh.5,000, children Ksh.3,000 and infants Ksh. 1,500 during weekdays and working hours.
For weekends and afterwork hours, this service, which was free, will cost Ksh.8,000.
For burial at the Lang’ata Cemetery, an adult from Nairobi will cost Ksh. 30,500, a child will cost 22,500 and an infant 15,500.
However, non-Nairobi residents will pay the following: Ksh.40,000 for an adult, child Ksh.28,500 and infant Ksh.21,500.
Foreigners will part with Ksh.50,00(adults) and Ksh.35,000 (child).
The county will charge Ksh.20,000 for cremation of an adult, while the levies for a child and an infant will be Ksh.16,000 and Ksh.14,000 respectively.
