This archive report was first published on 2 July 2020.
Reintroduction of Excise Duty on Betting ¶
On June 30, 2020, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the Finance Bill 2020, which dropped the 20% excise duty on bets staked. However, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has now announced plans to petition the National Assembly to reintroduce the excise duty within the next six months.
According to Yatani, the government is still committed to ensuring that the youth engage in productive money-making activities and to protecting them from harmful activities associated with betting. He noted that betting had adversely affected the social fabric of the country.
Yatani's announcement comes after the removal of the 20% excise duty on bets staked, which drove out leading betting companies from the Kenyan market in 2019. The removal of the law is expected to see a return of the betting firms, particularly Sportpesa, which had the greatest market share.
On Twitter, Sportpesa addressed rumors of a return, stating that it was in the works but no date could be mentioned at the moment. One interesting point to note in the scrapping of betting tax is that it came barely months after a close contact to Uhuru acquired crucial stakes at Sportpesa.
Uhuru's cousin, Peter Kihanya Muiruri, had acquired stakes in up to three companies that are part of the Sportpesa franchise, as reported by Daily Nation.
