The government has announced a plan to reduce taxes on the cost of production of electric vehicles and motorbikes in the country.
President William Ruto, who spoke on Tuesday after visiting Roam Park motorcycle assembly plant, said his administration was focused on increasing the production of e-motorbikes from the current 2,000 to 200,000 by the end of 2024.
“We want to have over 200,000 electric boda bodas by the end of next year. We have agreed with some companies and that is why we have reduced five different taxes,” he said.
As part of the plan to cut costs on production of electronic vehicles and motorbikes, the President said the Finance Act as proposed by the Kenya Kwanza regime had a plan to reduce key taxes in order to bring down the costs of production and market price.
President Ruto said the government had put measures to remove Value Added Tax (VAT) on spare parts and batteries as well as on all charging equipment for the e-bikes.
He also noted that the government would also reduce VAT for electric boda bodas which would ensure the buying price goes down by 16 per cent in a bid to make the bikes affordable.
“We have policy intervention in our Finance Bill specifically targeting e-mobility, our boda boda people specifically because they contribute almost Ksh.1 billion to the economy every day,” he said.
“The policy interventions we have included from zero rating on all e-bikes, motor vehicle spare parts, removing taxes on charging equipment, battery and lithium and the whole manufacturing of gadgets and instruments used in e-mobility.”
President Ruto likewise said the electricity costs at charging stations would be cut so as to ensure the riders can maximize their profits and pay less to charge their bikes.
The Head of State consequently hailed the move reiterating that it would guarantee a safer future free of pollution after the country fully adopts e-mobility to combat climate change.
“You can see just by intervening in a minimal way, we can be able to bring down the cost of our e-mobility infrastructure by between 16 and 20 per cent just by adjusting taxes here and there,” he explained.
“We need a tax infrastructure globally that is going to respond to climate change financing that we’re looking at.”
