Safaricom has announced that as from February 8, 2013, it would cost more to carry out M-Pesa transactions.
The Kenyan telecom operator said that government’s recent amendments to the Customs and Excise Duty Act, which went into effect on Friday, “has affected an upward review of its M-Pesa tariffs, which will take effect on February 8.” Bob Collymore, the CEO, says the latest increment was necessary in order to protect the service from being negatively impacted by the tax.
The government introduced a 10 per cent excise duty tax on transaction fees charged on money transfer services by cellular phone providers, banks, money transfer agencies in an effort to grow its revenues.
So tariffs for transactions above KSh101 will go up by 10 per cent starting February 8, while transactions valued below KSh100 will remain unchanged. This means that M-Pesa users withdrawing between KSh101 and KSh2,500 from their accounts will pay approximately KSh27.5 up from the current KSh25.
“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,” said Mr Collymore. “It also ensures that we continuously invest in our platform and extensive distribution network.”
