We Have Fair Tax Measures – Ruto Praises His Reforms to Silicon Valley Investors
President William Ruto has lauded the tax measures implemented by his government, which he claims have made it easier for investors to transact business on the market.
During his Friday visit to Silicon Valley in San Francisco, where he met with tech leaders from Microsoft, Intel, Google, and Apple, the President highlighted Kenya’s efforts to eliminate the Value-Added-Tax (VAT) on exported services and the tax on stock-based compensation for employees of start-ups, as well as the domestic equity requirement for ICT companies.
In addition to praising the country’s business-friendly environment, he lauded Kenya’s straightforward, consistent, equitable, and predictable tax code.
“We are committed to aligning our institutional framework for data protection with the global regime in the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules framework,” Ruto stated.
The head of state emphasized the commitment to re-engineering Kenya’s Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and Export Processing Zones (EPZ) to make them the most competitive in Africa.
He added that the strategic objective is to expedite the influx of foreign direct investments by eliminating procedures and regulations designed to erect superfluous barriers for investors.
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“We are further clarifying and rationalizing the land regime to make access to land in the SEZ and EPZ expeditious.
“By the end of the year, we shall have reviewed the entire policy and institutional framework governing SEZ and EPZ to align them with our objective of mobilizing a stronger FDI performance,” he reiterated.
Ruto added that Kenya is the gateway to the East African Community, which has a regional market of 500 million and a Pan-African market of 1.4 billion.
“If you build it in Kenya, it works for Africa and if you set up in Kenya, your African footprint is guaranteed. Our country is not only a thriving economy of the hardest workers you can find anywhere, it is also a scenic extravaganza of spectacular geography and a thrilling theatre of rare wildlife in majestic action,” he added.
Foreign markets, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have applauded the Kenya-Kwanza government’s review of the country’s tax policies to increase revenue collection.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u has proposed measures to prevent the zero-rating of VAT on the supply of commodities such as pharmaceuticals, agricultural pesticides, animal feeds, cooking gas, and maize flour.
The proposed evaluations are essentially set to raise the cost of the commodities in the country.
We Have Fair Tax Measures – Ruto Praises His Reforms to Silicon Valley Investors
