The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has permitted exiting of imported vehicles from the port of Mombasa without number plates to ease the clearance congestion.
The imported cars will now be required to leave the port with logbooks and third identifier stickers pasted on the car’s windscreen.
The directive, which also encompasses locally assembled cars, comes at a time when the number plate demand supersedes the supply at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison following a shortage of raw material.
Vehicles owners at the port continue to decry the authority’s slow pace of clearing vehicles which end up costing them storage fees that range between 2000 shillings to 6000 shillings. The directive to allow imported cars leave the port without number plates is a welcomed move that would be expected to speed up the process of clearance.
The clearance of vehicles at the Mombasa port is also challenged by a shortage of logbooks which are a mandatory requirement for vehicles.
“We have had discussions with KRA and an importer is required to produce an e-sticker and logbooks as proof that the vehicle is duly registered,” NTSA Director General, Francis Meja said.
An estimated 10,000 second hand cars imported are stuck at the container freight stations where owners continue to cough up the storage money depending on the value of the car.
Mr.Meja noted that the directive applied to new vehicles which are assembled locally as long as the car is registered, issued with an e-sticker and a logbook.
Car importers had earlier in the week complained of the cost they were having to incur while their cars were stuck at the Port arguing that some of the cars were meant for business and had been purchased through loans.