Traders in Eastleigh are counting loss as the government continue to increase tax.
Traders in Eastleigh are considering relocating their businesses to Tanzania, adding that the business environment in the neighboring country is friendly.
They further added that the government failed to conduct public participation about taxation increase. They claim that the tax on a container of imports has reached Ksh.3 million, up from Ksh.1.7 million in 2017 making it impossible to sell anything.
“This year alone, the government has increased taxes twice, from Ksh.2.8 million to Ksh.3 million to Ksh4.4 million per container in July,” stated one of the traders.
“Our business community has brought us a number of complaints, complaining about taxation increases without any public participation.”
The businessmen further added that most of their customers are from neighboring countries but due to the over taxation in Kenya majority of their customers have moved to Tanzania hence the low sales.
“We were not only selling our goods to Kenyans only but also Rwanda, Congo, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia, but all of them have left because taxation in their country is better,” stated a trader.
