Selling bottled water, juices, energy drinks, soda and other non-alcoholic beverages manufactured or imported into Kenya on or after November 13, 2019 could land you in jail or pay fines.
This is in line with the new excise duty being implemented by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), that will see the commodities start being taxed.
“KRA reminds all licensed manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers and general public that all bottled water, juices, energy drinks soda and other non-alcoholic beverages manufactured in or imported into Kenya from 13th November, 2019 must be affixed with an Excise Stamp in compliance with Section 28 of Excise Duty Act 2015 and Legal Notice 53 of 30th March 2017 (Excisable Goods Management System Regulations) as earlier notified through a Public Notice issued on 28th October 2019,” said KRA in a notice.
Read: KRA Insists On Implementation Of Excise Duty On Bottled Water Amid Court Injunction
All manufacturers and importers of bottled water, juices, energy drinks, soda and other non-alcoholic beverages are required to take full account of products manufactured or imported into Kenya prior to November 13, 2019 that do not have excise stamps in their stores and submit these stocks to the nearest Tax Service Office by 31″ January 2020.
“Any persons found in the possession of bottled water, juices, energy drinks, soda and other non-alcoholic beverages manufactured or imported into Kenya on or after 13th November 2019 not bearing an excise stamp will lead to seizure of all listed products in their possession, and offenders will be prosecuted,” noted KRA.
KRA has been setting up the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS), a move that will see the price of bottled water, juices, energy drinks, soda and any other non-alcoholic beverage hiked.
Read: Price Of Bottled Water To Rise By 80 Percent Upon Implementation Of EGMS – WBAK
Licensed manufacturers, bottlers and importers will now be required to affix Excise Stamps from KRA on the products in a bid to enable implementation of the tax.
KRA Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, Elizabeth Meyo said that the implementation of the system will increase revenue collection by approximately Ksh4 billion.
“Currently we have up to 78 percent of companies in the water sector who are not paying their fair share of taxes. This is not fair to the 22 percent who are compliant. The system will, therefore, enable KRA to monitor and ensure that all traders within the sector are compliant,” said Meyo in a notice last year.
Read: We Have Not Suspended Taxes On Bottled Water, Non-alcoholic Beverages – KRA
About 450 companies will be affected by the rollout. 64 production lines are automated while the rest are manual.
EGMS was first rolled out in 2013 on alcohol and cigarettes. Since then the system has enabled KRA to raise Ksh 5.6 billion monthly.
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