The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) board Chair Nderitu Murithi has urged traders to unbundle their consolidated containers once goods arrive in the country.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

His appeal comes as importers who share container space continue raising concerns over how their individual goods get taxed while speaking in a press interview on September 1.

Murithi explained that when several traders combine their goods into a single container, unbundling becomes necessary before duty can be charged fairly.

He said the bonded facility at the railway yard already gives traders enough room to separate and declare their individual consignments.

📌 What You Need to Know

“Everybody should pay for what they have actually imported. And the facility is there at the bomb machine here at the railway to be able, because in any case,Once you bring the consolidated container, at one point you have to unbundle,” Murithi stated.

According to him, unbundling ensures that each trader only pays duty on the specific items they personally brought into the country.

The KRA Chair noted that failure to separate goods at this stage often leads to confusion over whose consignment is whose.

He said this mix-up has, in the past, forced traders into disputes with fellow importers who shared the same container.

Murithi's advice comes at a time when traders opposed the Ksh3.2 million benchmark attached to a standard 40-foot container, adjusted from Ksh2.5 million that led to violent protests inside Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) on August 28.

He clarified that this adjustment is not a new tax, but rather an updated expectation of what a container should yield in duty, noting the percentage tariffs charged on goods remain exactly the same as before, regardless of the new benchmark.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke