Kenya Parliament Cuts Treasury Tax Measures to $763 Million (1)

Kenyan lawmakers watered down a slew of tax proposals fronted by the Treasury that would have raised nearly $1 billion for the East African nation’s budget.

The National Assembly rejected measures including a 25% excise duty on imported mobile phones and declined to end preferential tax treatment for locally assembled electric vehicles and raw materials for animal feeds and pharmaceuticals.

Reversing the zero-rated status to an exempt status would have spiked production costs and discouraged green investment, the Finance Committee Chairman Kuria Kimani said during the house debate. The revised proposals approved by lawmakers will instead generate 98.9 billion shillings ...