Kenya’s largest telco service provider Safaricom has increased its SMS and Data services from 10 per cent to 15 per cent citing the excise duty tax applicable on voice, after the coming to effect of the Finance Act 2018.
‘’As a result of the increased taxes passed in the Finance Act 2018, we wish to notify our customers that from midnight tonight, the 18th October 2018, our headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents.’’ The company said in a statement to newsrooms.
According to its chief executive officer Bob Collymore, the company has also reviewed its prices for mobile data bundles, Fibre-To-The-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) to effect the new 15 per cent Excise Duty tax on internet services.
‘’The full tariff guide has been filed with Communications Authority of Kenya as required by law and is available from our website, USSD, and all our customer touch points. We are aware of and regret the impact these additional taxes on our customers. It is our sincere hope that these changes will not affect the remarkable gains we have made in mobile phone and internet penetration in Kenya over the last two decades.’’ He said in a statement.
The news comes at a time when the Telco Operator lost 1.6 per cent of its subscribers to 29.7 million in the quarter ended June, according to the Communication Authority. Its closest rivals in Kenya, Airtel and Telkom continued to register gains in market share eating into Safaricom’s cake.
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