Local motor vehicle importers are incurring an extra cost of Sh20,000 per vehicle as demurrage charges in a newly-introduced rule by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for number plates.
KRA had directed, in April last year that importers would not be allowed to take their cars until they acquired actual number plates for the same.The taxman had argued that motor vehicles without number plates were being used in acts of thuggery in the country, which they said were on the rise.
Efforts to get a comment from KRA over the matter were futile. Importers are, however, questioning the rationale of introducing the clause arguing if the main issue was theft, the law enforcers could easily identify the vehicles used by logging in the chassis number to identify the owners of the vehicle.
