Traders in Laikipia want authorities to harmonise levies charged to transporters ferrying goods through various counties for ease of doing business.
They have complained that transporters pay multiple levies in various counties.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Laikipia branch chairman Ndegwa Gitonga said multiple levies hurt businesses as traders have to adjust pricing to factor in the levying.
He urged counties to harmonise the levies so that traders need not pay levies and cess money after having paid the same in their source county.
“When a trader is transporting products for cross-county trading, you find that the counties one traverses collect revenue in terms of cess. We have asked that counties be sensitised on what the levies mean to products and businesses so that they acknowledge levies from the source county and end the multiple taxations,” Gitonga said.
He was speaking during a consultative forum between the chamber and the State Department of the East African Community in Nanyuki town.
The Laikipia KNCCI chairman also urged the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the Anti-Counterfeit Authority to stop victimising retailers of goods found to be substandard and instead go to the manufacturer or importer.
“You find a trader buys goods on wholesale and has followed due process and paid taxes, but when the compliance agencies come and seize the goods at the shops, it’s only the retailer who is victimised while the source walks scot-free,” Gitonga said.
He said KNCCI is in consultation with the Business Reform Department of the EAC to sensitise traders and government enforcement agencies so they do not victimise traders.
Business Reform and Transformation department director at the State Department of EAC Odede Kideda said they have developed a regulatory tool kit to assist counties in harmonising levies charged on cross-county traders.
“With support from the United Kingdom Tech Hub last year, we developed the County Regulatory Tool Kit, a platform hosted on a website run by my department that provides information in terms of regulatory requirements in licensing and application processes for different counties. So far, we have piloted the same in 10 counties, Laikipia being one of them,” he said.
Kideda said the kit is meant to demystify the process of applying for and setting up a business at the county level.
He said his department had noted that there was a big difference between counties in terms of how they zone different businesses and sectors that are in place for businesses.
“We are in talks with the Council of Governors to have these processes harmonised and standardised,” Kideda said.
Laikipia East deputy county commissioner Patrick Muli said the national government, through the Interior ministry, had significantly increased the number of security personnel in the county for enhanced patrols and to ward off armed raiders and cattle rustlers.
