The Mombasa County Government has received a major boost after President William Ruto approved Governor Abdulswamad Nassir’s administration’s plan to collect revenues from the port.
In its 2022/2023 Finance Act, the county seeks to raise its revenue source through taxing businesses at the port of Mombasa.
Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen announced that the Head of State has allowed the county to get a share of the port revenues.
Mr Murkomen said Mombasa will soon benefit after the county administration met President Ruto to iron out issues that blocked it from collecting revenue from the port, which generates Sh15 billion yearly.
He said his ministry will discuss how to support the county government without hurting traders at the port of Mombasa by imposing more taxes on them.
“We will ensure that the Mombasa County Government gets something from the port of Mombasa, but not in a manner that is going to add more taxes to the businesspeople who live in this city. We will put a team together with the county government to ensure we resolve this matter in a manner that will protect businesses,” he added.
Win-win deal
The CS promised to give the national government’s final verdict on how the county will benefit from the port in two weeks, saying, it will be a win-win deal.
The Mombasa Port. The Mombasa County Government has received a major boost after President William Ruto approved Governor Abdulswamad Nassir’s administration’s plan to collect revenues from the port.
“We have agreed with my Principal Secretary Mohammed Daggar that we must seal all the leakages of the revenues so that we get more resources to expand the port and source for more stakeholders,” said Mr Murkomen during Mr Dagar’s homecoming party in Mombasa. Governor Nassir welcomed the move.
“We welcome the decision it is something we discussed with the President and he gave the directive that we should sit down with the ministry to come up with a way that is legally binding and constitutional. We are going to sit down with the ministry in a week,” Mr Nassir told Nation.
The governor said the funds will be used to develop infrastructure such as roads and sewerage. Mr Nassir’s administration wanted to charge port cess for containers per Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit at Sh1,237 ($10), and loose cargo at Sh61 ($ 0.5) per tonne. The county also proposed to extract Port Health charges per vessel — international at Sh123,600 ($1,000) and local at Sh2,472 ($20). However, Mr Nassir said the county will accept any decision from the national government that benefits residents.
Mr Murkomen said his Trade counterpart, Mr Moses Kuria, and Investment Promotion PS, Mr Abubakar Hassan, are charged with the responsibility of construction and operationalisation of the Sh39 billion Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone to create jobs and boost the economy. BY DAILY NATION