Following the Government’s move to adjust Excise Duty on Airtime and Telephone Services to 20 percent from 15 percent effective 1st July 2021, Kenya’s telecommunications giant, Safaricom, has moved to review their product and service pricing to reflect this change.
This means that Kenyans will have to pay more for making calls for ‘Big Brother’ to get his taxes. This will hit hard on Kenyans how pockets have already been raided by the hard economic times as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Safaricom, all out-of-bundle voice calls, data, and SMS as well as integrated plans including All-In-One will be revised to reflect the increased Excise Duty. Kenyans will have to pay more for these services.
Those who use data bundles from Safaricom, however, have everything to smile about after the prices were retained. The giant said “all our consumer data bundle prices remain unchanged (No-Expiry bundles, daily bundles, weekly bundles, monthly bundles, and Giga bundles).
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At the same time, roaming and international calling and SMS rates have been revised to reflect the 20 percent Excise Duty. This is the first time in a long time that the government of Kenya is raiding Kenya’s pockets by going after the calls and SMSs.
Safaricom says that the cost of all Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and Fibre to the Business (FTTB) plans have also been revised in line with the new Excise Duty.
Pricing for all Personal Postpaid including Karibu PostPay and all Corporate Postpaid products and services including Zidisha Plus, Cloud, Security, Collocation, and IoT have been revised accordingly. This shall be reflected in
the next monthly invoice.
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“This being a consumption tax, the burden, unfortunately, has to be absorbed by customers,” Peter Ndegwa, the Safaricom CEO, said.