PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH A labourer carries bananas to a store at
Wakulima Market in Nakuru at the weekend. Banana traders have protested
an increase in the fees charged per stall, which was raised from Sh360
to Sh450 per month.
NATION
A decision by county governments across
the country to raise levies and fees for various services has sparked
outrage from business owners and the public.
In Nairobi, the cost of doing business in the city has increased significantly as new rates take effect starting this month.
The county has also raised the rent paid by its tenants.
Businesses
will pay up to 66 per cent more this year than they did last year for a
licence to operate within the county’s boundaries.
The
county intends to charge expectant mothers more at the county-run
Pumwani Maternity Hospital while burial charges at the Lang’ata Cemetery
have also gone up.
Landowners will also pay more in
rates with plots in residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial
charged 34 per cent of their unimproved site value. Plot owners in
selected zones will also pay a flat rate of between Sh1,000 and Sh1,700
depending on the size of the land.
POLITICIANS NOT SPARED
Politicians
have not been spared either as they will pay the county government
Sh250,000 every time they want to hold a rally within the city, five
times the Sh50,000 they used to spend in 2013.
They are among the hardest hit. No other category of licences have had their charges increased five-fold.
The
move by counties to raise the charges came as senator Boni Khalwale
said the Senate would introduce legislation to check excessive taxation
by county governments.
Dr Khalwale criticised the
proposed charges and levies contained in the Kakamega County Finance
Bill 2013 which was presented to the County Assembly for debate on
Wednesday.
And Mr Francis Atwoli, the Central
Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general, said the devolved
system of government was increasingly becoming a nightmare to business
owners and workers.
He asked Parliament to take steps to halt the increased levies charged by counties.
“Today,
almost all county governments have raised rates by three times
including land and property rates as well as the cost of business
permits,” he said.
He warned that the business owners were likely to pass the costs on to consumers, raising the cost of living.
According
to the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek), the most worrying aspect
of the change of fees by the county governments is that they are getting
people by surprise.
“They are not being communicated
very well because people get to know about them only when they come to
pay (at City Hall),” said Mr Stephen Mutoro, Cofek’s secretary general.
He said the increase in the cost of doing business and of living would likely make counties a liability.
He
said the most recurring issue across the counties was that there hasn’t
been much public participation in the revision of the rates
.
.
“Counties
risk being stopped from implementing these fees if people go to court
citing the fact that there was little public participation in their
preparation,” he said.
County governments have the
legal mandate to charge fees and raise their own revenue. This is done
through the Finance Bill debated and approved by the County Assembly in
the same way MPs approve the Finance Bill at the national level.
In Kiambu, there has been an increase in the rates charged on lorries entering and leaving quarries from Sh100 to Sh300.
In
Thika town, traders at Jamhuri Market have protested against the
increases in their licence fees and other levies by over 100 per cent.
Their
leader, Ms Catherine Karanja, said a bag of farm produce initially
charged at Sh20 was now being charged Sh40 and that a lorry ferrying
produce into the market was being charged Sh1,000 up from Sh500.
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