Here’s how the new taxes affect Safaricom services

The new taxes will make budgeting even harder for you, that’s how. But it’s only for some time, hopefully.

Everybody in Kenya will have to adjust to the new reality. What else can we do? A good entrepreneur can only pass cost to the customers. Even Safaricom will be living with these changes, no thanks to the new taxes.

The new tax laws were effected in July, 2018 but only signed by the President in September, 2018. After the fuel VAT was reduced by half, the Government looked for other areas to raise money. Mobile services and home internet were some areas, which were picked.

Mobile money, calls, SMS and internet services had excise tax increased to 15%. Home internet did not have excise tax at all but now stands at 15%. All these services also have a 16% VAT charge. This means that for every sh.100 you spend on them, the Government takes more than sh.30.

Safaricom already responded by increasing the cost of M-Pesa charges by an average of sh.1, back in July. Recently, the company announced that SMS charges will go up by 10 cents. The charges for calls and mobile internet have also gone up, by 30 cents. All this has been effective since 18th October, 2018.

Prices for Safaricom Home Fibre services have also gone up. You can register for the home plus version to get unlimited high speed internet plus data, free SMS and talk time on your phone. Here is a summary of the new prices

home plus package new price
Bronze sh.3400
Silver sh.4999
Gold sh.6699
Platinum sh.12,499