The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has begun a six-day online auction of different items that have overstayed at the port of Mombasa.
Bicycles, Tyres, Cars, Bible, Gypsum, used laptops, camera tripod stand, Nike boots, furniture, steel, gym equipment, bitumen, and assorted candy are some of the items on sale in an exercise which began on August 14 and ending on August 20th.
To participate in the exercise, the tax man advised interested buyers to log in using KRA iTax PIN and iTax PIN.
“Pursuant to Section 42 of East African Community Customs Management Act 2004, the commissioner of customs and Border Control intends to carry out a Public Auction for gazetted goods currently lying in the Port of Mombasa and respective Container Freight Stations on Mombasa,” Read KRA statement.
Physical viewing of the items will also be carried out from 14th August 2023 to 18th August 2023 at the Port of Mombasa and Container Freight Stations in Mombasa.
Apart from making disposal of the goods transparent, the online auction phases out the physical sale, which forces interested buyers to flock to the Mombasa stations.
KRA in an earlier statement said the auction process and bidding will be done online without the people necessarily congregating at the customs warehouse for the event.
This will make the auction process more transparent as one will be able to evaluate all the bids made for an item and make sure only the highest bid is accepted.
“The information as to what the item was, how many bids and for how much was made and who got it shall be available even after the auction for verification.”
The online auction process also enables a large number of bidders to participate in the auction process and eliminate the possibility of cartels frustrating sales.
