This archive report was first published on 26 June 2021.
On June 24, 2021, the National Assembly made a crucial amendment to the Finance Bill 2021, exempting Kenyan artistes from a proposed 25% excise duty.
Finance Committee chair Gladys Wanga moved the amendments before Parliament, citing the unfair revenue sharing from ring-back and call-back tunes.
Ms Wanga expressed her concerns, stating, "Artistes in this country sweat blood to be able to record and play their music and they are never rewarded. The reward is very small compared to the investment these young artistes make."
She proposed an exemption on excisable services supplied in Kenya by mobile telecommunication service providers on the sale of a ring-back tune to a subscriber.
Ms Wanga also announced plans to bring an amendment to the Copyright Act, which will see artistes taking the bulk of revenue generated from the sales of the ring-back tunes.
"In the current sharing formula, the artiste gets 16% out of one shilling, taxation is 25%, while Safaricom gets 51%. I undertake to bring an amendment to the Copyright Act so that the sharing arrangement is done in a such a way that the artistes gets the bulk of it," she said.
