PwC

KBA
Economy
James Wambua

Excise drives taxes paid by banks up 40 percent to Sh181 billion

In Kenya, the banking sector is increasingly taking a central role in the economy, with a new study showing the sector contributed Kes181.27 billion largely on account of higher excise tax in 2022. The significance of this contribution was magnified in the Total Tax Contribution (TTC) study that shows the financial impact the banks had made in 2022. Led by Alice Muriithi, a Partner at PwC Kenya and the lead technical advisor on the study, the TTC study reported a Total Tax Contribution of Kes181.27 billion in 2022. This was a 39.94 percent increase from the previous year’s Kes129.52 billion. The contribution marks a milestone

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Namwamba in Kisumu.
EconomyNews
James Wambua

Government laying digital traps to tax virtual music

The word music appears just once in Kenya’s 510-page Economic Survey 2023, perhaps an indication of the loud but minuscule role the segment plays in the country’s economy. Despite its enormous potential, the music industry remains a footnote in Kenya’s economy only featuring lumped under the broad arts, entertainment, and recreation segment. The survey statistics show that the arts, entertainment, and recreation GDP contributed Kes28 million to Kenya’s wealth last year. Although the music industry is struggling in Kenya, signs of success have began streaming in as Kenyan artists push through digital platforms in search of the Afrobeat and Amapiano success, and the taxman cannot…

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CBK Cash
FeaturedNews
James Wambua

When taxes don’t make business sense

With a scheduled touchdown of 12 midnight at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, I knew I will have problems finding my way to Ndenderu, Kiambu County, in the dead of the night.  So upon getting that “Karibu nyumbani” alert from Safaricom, and going through the arrival immigration checks by tired-looking officers, I stepped out on the cold tarmac to get a taxi home. “Boss, unaelekea wapi?,” a trio of taxi drivers, keen to secure a late-night deal, shove each other mobbing me at the arrivals section. Years of technological advances and the rise of digital ride hailing applications have done little to change…

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