On Thursday, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u proposed to retain the excise duty on mobile money transfer services at 15 percent. This rate applies to telephone and internet data services, fees charged on money transfer services by banks, fees charged by agencies and other financial service providers, and fees charged by cellular phone service providers.
“I propose to retain the excise duty rate of 15 per cent on fees charged on money transfer services by cellular phone service providers to benefit retail electronic payments ecosystem,” Ndung’u said.
Njuguna was speaking in Parliament during the reading of the 2024-25 financial year budget statement. The 2024/2025 budget is estimated to cost Sh3.91 trillion. Of this amount, Sh1.58 trillion is allocated for recurrent expenditure, Sh727.9 billion for development expenditure, Sh1.21 trillion for consolidated fund services, and Sh400 billion for county equitable share.
To fund this budget, the government aims to collect Sh2.91 trillion from ordinary revenue and Sh441 billion from ministerial appropriation in aid.
The National Treasury has projected a deficit of Sh508.9 billion, which it plans to bridge by borrowing Sh257.9 billion from domestic lenders and sourcing the remaining Sh256.7 billion from international lenders.
