Prices of bottled water, alcohol, juices, cosmetics and cigarettes are set to rise after a court threw out a bid to suspend the proposed increase of fees on excise duty stamps.
Justice Hedwig Ong’undi on Tuesday dismissed an application by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) to bar the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from enforcing the proposed price regulations.
Effect of the part of the regulations -Excise Duty (Excise Goods Management System) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023 -is to adjust and raise the price of excise stamps of the products by up to four times.
The KRA’s proposed regulations will increase the fees of excise stamps for bottled water, juices and any other non-alcoholic drinks, cosmetics, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and nicotine products and export products subject to excise with effect from March 1, 2023.
The higher stamp prices will likely be passed down to the final consumer by producers and importers,