The Kenya Revenue Authority has been under heat on recent days after announcing that travellers coming into kenya with personal goods over 75K will be taxed. This was made public few days ago when the tax organisation said that the tax will be imposed on personal and household items.
The KRA deputy commissioner for policy and international affairs, customs and border control, David Ontweka has come out to clarify this developments. He has insisted that declaration of the items is important when checking into the country.
“Where you purchased goods that are more than 500 dollars you will be required to declare them. For example if you go out there and you buy a phone and you go with another phone. You will be required to come and tell the officer that I have an extra phone.”
Sally Serem, KRA’s chief manager for passenger clearance at JKIA has said that scanning will help identify goods worth taxing.
“The goods that have been checked in will be scanned by the airline. And in most cases the traveller will not even know that the scanning has been done. So that when you arrive we will only pick out the baggage that has been marked for further verification.”
KRA has however through Ontweka has said that goods that one can carry are exempted from tax. So whatever you buy from outside the country like wines water and perfumes not exceeding one litre.
“People who smoke are allowed to carry 250 grams of tobacco perfume of less than a litre. Also alcohol to a level of what you can carry beyond that you have to pay for it.”
The authority has however faced backlash over the recent months as to how they handle people at JKIA. This led to the Foreign Committee calling out KRA for the same.
Nelson Koech said in a statement, “This is not the time to be threatening those coming to Kenya. We are entering the peak tourism season.”