Reprieve for Kenyans as Court Stops KRA from Exercising new Fuel Tax

A High Court sitting on Monday issued a temporary injunction stopping the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from increasing the excise duty on over 30 commodities starting Friday, October 1, 2021.

In the plan, the taxman sought to adjust the exercise duty for various household goods using the average inflation rate of 4.97% for the 2020/2021 financial year.

In a case filed by Isaiah Odando and Wilson Yata through lawyer Kenneth Amondi, High Court judge James Makau ruled that “pending the hearing and determination of this application inter parte, this court be pleased to issue temporary conservatory orders quashing the decision by the Commissioner-General of the Kenya Revenue Authority to adjust excise duty rates for petroleum products effective October 1, 2021.”

Odando and Yata had sought orders from the court to temporarily suspend the implementation of the exercise duty pending the hearing and determination of their case.

The two argue that adjusting the levy on petroleum products has subjected Kenyans to suffering from the high cost of living.

According to Omondi, adjusting the “excise duty for petroleum products is a burden to an already overtaxed Kenyans. It is worsened by the fact that it comes at a time when Kenyans are reeling from economic consequences of Covid-19 thereby compromising their entitlement to social justice.”

Additionally, Omondi faulted parliament for ignoring “the voice of the people by appropriating funds for expenditure by the national government and its other agencies through the allocation of national revenues without considering that the source of funds is definitely high taxation of the populace,”

Should the new levy have been implemented, the price of a liter of Super Petrol could have increased to Sh135.80, diesel from Sh115.5 to Sh116 from the current Sh134.72, and kerosene to just above Sh111.

The taxman could have also earned an additional Sh400 billion from adjusted excise duty.