The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has recommended the restructuring of KenGen, KPLC, and KETRACO as a means of providing quality and affordable energy to improve manufacturing competitiveness.
Speaking at the eighth Presidential Roundtable last week, Flora Mutahi, Chair KAM said the main issues restricting manufacturing competitiveness are high energy costs, Import Declaration Fee (IDF), Railway Development Levy, taxes on raw materials, low labour productivity, inefficient logistics, delayed payments, low access to credit, and multiple charges.
The aim of the roundtable was to discuss how the private sector can be involved towards the government’s goal of the Big Four agenda.
With regards to energy, KAM also proposed the removal of all taxes and levies on power bills for manufacturers, the restructuring of the Time of Use Tariff, and for net metering and energy wheeling agreements to be allowed to take effect.
To achieve these recommendations, KAM proposed actions such as the Ministry of Energy allowing off-grid power and a meeting between the CS Treasury, Henry Rotich and CS Energy Charles Keter to meet today.
The aim of the meeting is to help them agree on the “reduction of the cost of energy from US Cents 16 to U.S. Cents 9 per kWh, conclude on the removal of WARMA 0.01, ERC 0.001, REP 5% of power bills and establishment of FCC stabilization fund meant to keep electricity prices stable and predictable, review of Time of Use Tariff (ToU) in a bid to accommodate all industries.”
Last month, CS Energy Charles Keter ordered the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to review the tariff structure in three months while KPLC was given a month to review token tariffs in order to create a uniform rate to be charged by all token vendors.
