Kenyan telecom Safaricom has put up the price of its M-Pesa mobile money service due to the government’s decision to tax such services.
The price increase came into effect on Friday, February 8.
HumanIPO reported recently M-Pesa users would be required to pay 10 percent extra to move money after the government brought in a new tax effective this month.
Safaricom boss Bob Collymore said: “Our M-Pesa tariff structure is guided by our understanding that we need to sustain the robustness and availability of this money transfer services across the country. It also ensures that we continuously invest in our platform and extensive distribution network.”
Collymore was clear, however, that he disagreed with the new tax.
“As Kenya’s largest taxpayer, we appreciate the need to support government as it seeks to reach its financial obligations. However, we maintain our position that a tax on mobile money is at that this time premature and is likely to have a negative impact on the country’s financial deepening agenda by creating an unnecessary barrier for wananchi (citizens) who are most in need of basic financial services.”
Airtel Money and Yu Cash have yet to confirm how they will deal with the new charge, having recently scrapped transaction fees.
