Posted on October, 25, 2018 at 10:44 am
By AGATHA NGOTHO
Kenya has lost at least Sh16.7 billion of revenue due to duty free importation of maize between May and October last year, the national Treasury has revealed.
The Senate select committee on the maize crisis was told the loss could be higher if sugar and milk, which were also imported duty-free, are factored in.
During the period, the country imported 944,530 tonnes valued at Sh15.1 billion and 148,562 tonnes of yellow maize at Sh1.6 billion. Treasury CAS Nelson Gaichuhie told the committee chaired by Uasin Gishu senator Margaret Kamar that the decision to import was made by the multiagency team after the maize shortage which led to prices of a 2kg packet of maize flour skyrocketing to Sh150.
duty free
“Failure to restrict the importation led to the flooding of maize in the market and loss of revenue for the Exchequer,” Gaichuhie said.
Trans Nzoia senator Michael Mbito wanted to know why Treasury failed to limit the quantity of maize yet the country was harvesting.
“We acted in good faith. Once the request came from the Ministry of Agriculture, we had no reason to doubt. We had every reason to believe that a proper analysis had been done before the request had been done,” he said.
Gaichuhie added that they only got involved because the request of importation was duty free. “We lost revenue because of the exemptions, but we also managed to stabilise the maize flour prices. The ordinary person was the ultimate winner,” he said.
Source: The Star