Gamblers Hit With 10% Excise Duty on Amounts Staked

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has introduced a new excise duty on betting activities at 10 percent on all amounts staked.

The CS made the announcement during the reading of the 2019/20 financial budget on Thursday in Parliament.

“Mr. Speaker, betting has become a menace in our society and its expansion has had negative social effects, particularly to the young and vulnerable members of our society. In order to curtail the negative effects arising from betting activities, I propose to introduce excise duty on betting activities at 10 percent on the amounts staked,” said the CS.

This comes a year after levies on betting, lotteries, gaming and competition prizes were increased to uniform levy of 50 percent, a move aimed at increasing government revenue.

During the announcement, reactions from the Members of Parliament seemed to disapprove the excise duty hinting that it was too low and others were heard shouting for it to be increased to 30 or 50 percent.

The new exercise duty will see gamblers paying more in order to place a bet. For example, if one is staking 100 shillings, 10 percent (10 shillings) will be automatically deducted as tax, and in real sense, they will only be staking 90 shillings.

The government, through the Ministry of Interior, recently confirmed that 76 percent of Kenyan youth are involved in gambling in one way or another. 56 percent of those involved in gambling are from the lowest income category while the remaining 46 are from the middle-income category.

15% Tax on Cigarettes and Alcohol

On alcohol and cigarettes, the cabinet secretary proposed an increase on the rates of excise duty by 15 percent to address the decline on excise revenue and boost excise revenues.

“Mr. Speaker, excise duties on alcohol and tobacco will be increased as follows: a 750ml bottle of wine will have an excise duty of 136 shillings which is 18 shillings more from the current rate; the duty of a bottle of whisky will go up by 24 shillings to 182 shillings for a 750ml bottle. The excise duty on a packet of 20 cigarettes will increase by 8 shillings to 61 shillings per packet,” said the CS.

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