Age will soon be a painful number

They say age is nothing but a number, but try telling that to the Treasury mandarins on vehicle importation. I have a queasy feeling Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich is going to be a very unpopular chap among the newly employed upstarts.

Why? Because he proposes to make the acquisition of their first toy a more torturous journey. As my grandmother used to say, the only good thing that has seen better days is well matured green bananas.

If Excise Duty Bill 2015 sails through, then he will have effectively increased the cost of second hand cars by Sh200,000.

For those already with a car, if you think the government has pity on you, think again.

If you want to upgrade from your current car that is as old as your adolescent daughter, you will pay more for the replacement, not unless you can afford to import or buy locally a car that is less than three years old.

In fresh plans to raise revenue for the Sh2.1 trillion budget, car buyers will bear a blanket tax based on a vehicle’s age, replacing the current calculation, which relies on its estimated value.

Mr Rotich wants to slap a Sh200,000 excise tax on all vehicles aged over three years from the date of first registration. Newer ones will attract Sh150,000 tax. The new Bill if passed and signed into law will automatically push up car prices by Sh200,000.

According to my pal Charles Kinoti, a second hand car dealer the immediate net effect is that the cheapest second-hand car that is older than two years will shoot up from about Sh600,000 to Sh800,000.

“The costs will be unbearable, driving us out of business and locking out majority of prospective car owners. “It will be harder for new car owners as most rely on older cars being handled down.

“If no motorist will be making an upgrade and therefore a hand down, then the business of selling cars will have been totally deflated,” an agitated Kinoti snarled as we passed time in his car yard, waiting for car buyers who are already giving car bazaars a wide berth.

“I already pay for this plot,” lamented Kinoti. “If I cannot manage to survive in this city by selling cars, what will I do and miraa too has been condemned abroad?”

But that is none of CS Rotich’s business as he has urged MPs to prioritise the Bill for debate.

The Bill was tabled in Parliament three days after he read the Budget.

He did not even give the Kenyans enough time to contemplate where the money will come from. “In this simplified Bill, we are imposing excise duty to compensate for the harmful effects caused by production, supply, consumption or use of goods and services, which costs are not reflected in their prices,” he said.

Perhaps the government, having seen that it is running out time to upgrade transport infrastructure, has come up with an ingenious way of keeping traffic on the roads manageable by ensuring very few new imports enter the country.

Twitter: @tonyngare