Importers should pay $1 (Sh100) to the county government for every tonne of cargo handled at the port of Mombasa, Governor Hassan Joho has proposed.
Mr Joho, who appeared before a Senate watchdog committee yesterday, suggested that the county be allowed to levy cess on consignments shipped into the country. He noted that the region had not benefited much despite being home to the busy port.
“Having the importers pay $1 for a tonne that goes through the port is not too much to ask. Currently, the county doesn’t get a single shilling in revenue from the port despite maintaining infrastructure around the facility,” he said.
The average daily cargo traffic at the port is 77,000 tonnes. If the levy was approved, it would earn the county Sh7.7 million a day and Sh2.8 billion each year. The governor also asked for the intervention of the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee to help his administration collect billions of shillings owed to the county.
Only if it is collected by the national and then given to county govt maybe it can work. But if they think they can have their own toll station then is a no no… we know the next thing we would hear is pwani si kenya
Mombasa county has received more than 20B in the last 5years, this year they hit 6B, why on earth do they need an extra 2.8B from already overtaxed taxpayers yet we are already financing them? Joho (and the rest of the governors) need to understand that they must spur growth of their local economies for them to generate more funds through already existing taxes then they can be selfreliant, make your own money.