This archive report was first published on 8 July 2021.
Published on July 8, 2021, the Finance Act, 2021, has led to an increase in excise duty on airtime and telephone services from 15 percent to 20 percent.
Safaricom customers will now pay Sh4.87 per minute for calls made between 8am and 10pm, up from Sh4.3 per minute during peak hours. The cost of sending an SMS will also increase to Sh1.20 per message, while that of browsing with airtime when data bundles are exhausted will increase to Sh4.87 for each megabyte.
Roaming and international calling rates have also been revised to reflect the 20 percent excised duty. Borrowers will have to pay more fees to get a loan from Fuliza, Mshwari, KCB-Mpesa, and other digital loans.
"All out-of-bundle voice calls, data and SMS, as well as integrated plans including All-In-One will be revised to reflect the increased Excise Duty," read a notice from Safaricom to its customers.
Meanwhile, Airtel Kenya was the first telco in Kenya to notify its customers last week on Friday of the increase in call and data rates via SMS, stating that their revised call rate would be Sh2.78 per minute.
