Too easy to tax: Why motorists are an easy target for Treasury

Traffic jam caused by vehicles queueing to fuel at a petrol station in Mombasa, April 2022. [Omondi Onyango, Standard]

Nearly two decades ago, the government scrapped the annual road licence.

This would have been to the delight of motorists were it not for the fact that the then Finance Minister Amos Kimunya transferred the levy that motorists were paying to the pump price. The fees that were being paid for the road licence were now factored into the Road Maintenance Levy, which motorists have over the years paid whenever they fuel their cars.