Miraa traders in Lamu have decried the high taxation imposed by the county government.
The traders said they are denied profits because of the high taxation whenever they ferry the produce from Meru to Lamu.
The county government gets Sh10,000 as tax
from each miraa lorry.
Speaking on Monday, Lamu Miraa Traders Association chairperson Ibrahim Kamanja said initially there no charges on an individual lorry.
Instead, the county would charge each trader Sh30 a day at their miraa shops.
The traders are now worried the new taxes might kill miraa business in the region.
They want the tax reduced to a reasonable amount or abandoned altogether.
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“We are running loses in this business as at now. Each lorry spends more than Sh5,000 on the road from Meru to Lamu. Upon reaching here, each lorry has again to part with Sh10,000 for county taxes,”
Kamanja said.
The traders want the county to lower the tax to at least Sh1,000 per lorry just like in other counties.
Miraa trader Peter Muriungi said many of his colleagues have stopped ferrying miraa from Meru to Lamu.
Miraa consumers have had to bear the brunt of the taxes as prices of the product have more than doubled.
A kilo of miraa, which initially retailed at Sh1,000, is now going for Sh3,000.
“I used to buy a kilo a day. Now I have to convince the trader to give me a quarter kilo for Sh750,” customer Shee Abdullahi said.
For other users like Hafswa Musa, miraa is now a thing of the past, at least for the moment.
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“It's outrageous for me to spend Sh3,000 buying a kilo of miraa when the same amount can buy a 15 kg bag of rice for my kids. For now, I can't afford to buy it but I am hoping the prices will go down,” Musa said.
Lamu Finance executive Ahmed Hemed denied that there is any new tax on miraa.
He said the
Sh10,000 tax paid per lorry of miraa has been in existence for long.
The executive said all they have done was to reinforce the collection of taxes to curb defaulters.
“That's how things have been for years now. We are simply following a law that has existed. We are making sure all those required to pay these taxes are doing so promptly and to the latter,” Hemed said.