Airtel Kenya announces reduction in excise duty and increase in mobile money limits
Airtel Kenya has announced a downward adjustment of its excise duty rates on its range of telecommunication services from the previous 20% to a revised 15 per cent.
The rate reduction, is the result of a management decision to revise its pricing, which is expected to take effect from August 1, 2023.
“Airtel Kenya has reviewed its tariffs for voice, data and SMS services to reflect the reduction in excise duty from 20 per cent to 15 per cent to be implemented from August 1, 2023,” the company said in its statement.
The statement added that transaction fees for Airtel Money services will remain the same, unaffected by the recent adjustments.
Customer Notice: Excise duty adjustment on pricing effective 1st August 2023. pic.twitter.com/BLB2hpWbY6
— Airtel Kenya (@AIRTEL_KE) August 1, 2023
The company said details of the pricing of products and services are available on www.airtelkenya.com as well as at any Airtel Kenya Shop.
It further thanked its customers, boasting that it remains the most affordable network.
“Thank you for your continued support. Airtel remains the most affordable network for voice, data, SMS and Airtel money,” they said.
The adjustment comes just days after their rival Safaricom also adjusted M-Pesa, call, data, SMS and home fibre charges to align with the revised excise duty in the Finance Act 2023.
The Act has revised the excise duty on mobile money transfer services upwards to 15 per cent from 12 per cent while the excise duty on telecommunication services was revised downwards to 15 per cent from 20 per cent.
This means that mobile money transfer charges are going up while charges on call, data and SMS charges are going down.
On Friday, the Court of Appeal has overturned an order made last month suspending the implementation of the 2023 Finance Act after Treasury CS Prof Njuguna Ndung’u argued that the government was losing half a billion shillings a day as a result of the freeze.
A three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal lifted the suspension placed on 30 June, pending the determination of an appeal filed by Prof Ndung’u.
The CS moved to the Court of Appeal through Attorney-General Justin Muturi, arguing that the government would lose about Sh211 billion in the current financial year.
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