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Motorists To Pay Daily Congestion Charges In New Tax Proposal

Published

2 months ago

February 1, 2023

Kenyan Digest

Motorists To Pay Daily Congestion Charges In New Tax Proposal

By Getrude Mathayo / Published February 1, 2023 | 2:38 pm

KEY POINTS

The State is seeking the introduction of a congestion charge a fee charged on cars driven in zones marked as heavy traffic areas such as the central business district. Companies, especially manufacturing plants, face a fresh carbon tax to encourage them to cut emissions.

USA, Arizona, Phoenix, traffic on congested freeway, elevated view

Kenyan motorists are set to pay traffic congestion charges and companies hit with a new tax for every tonne of carbon emitted from their plants if a new tax proposal by the National Treasury sails through.

The Treasury disclosed plans for the daily variable toll in a policy document made public on Tuesday, 30^th January in the race to ease traffic snarl-ups and air pollution. The details are contained in a document referred to as the National Green Fiscal Incentives Policy Framework.

The exchequer did not indicate how much motorists will pay but the new congestion fees will target motorists and companies in Kenya’s biggest cities and urban centers such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nakuru

Traffic congestion is a major problem in the city of Nairobi. Not only does it cause pollution but also causes a loss of revenue.

There have been claims that Matatus are the main cause of that traffic congestion and efforts made to ban their entry into the Nairobi Central Business District by creating bus terminus outside the city center as well as encouraging cycling into the city and increasing lanes to reduce congestion

This has only burdened passengers using public transport by increasing time spent on the road and caused further inconveniences as commuters have to spend more time walking to the required destinations. Existing infrastructure does not safely accommodate cycling around the city as well. These measures have not been fruitful.

Therefore, the County government has plans to introduce Bus Rapid Transit on selected routes in Nairobi to ease traffic congestion. Public roads are classified as common resource goods in basic economic classification. Such goods are rival, meaning they are consumed by a single user at a time and are non-excludable because it is impossible to exclude people from use.