Gov’t unveils plan to reduce cost of cooking gas

By Victor MUJIDU

The Kenya government is eying in excess of Sh2.5 billion from the anti-adulteration Levy to pay LPG gas cylinder suppliers.

The planned move through the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum is as a result expected to boost access to LPG gas cylinders to over 4.4 million households across the country.

“The government of Kenya through the ministry aims at ensuring the transition of all learning institutions in the country from the use of biomass for cooking to use of LPG by 2025,” said the Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir.

Further, Mr. Chirchir said the generated revenue tapped from the anti-adulteration Levy will help the government to meet its 2028 target of supplying Kenyan households with LPG gas cylinders.

President William Ruto, had in February hinted that such a deal would help in subsidizing the costs of cooking cylinders and enhance the uptake of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the country within the next three years.

“We should bring the LPG business into the open tender system to get better pricing, bigger vessels coming into our country as we build these facilities from Mombasa to intra lands and homes,” said Mr. Ruto.

On the other hand, the Kenya Pipeline Company has already concluded the front-end engineering design for a 30,000 metric tonne LPG facility in Changamwe while it’s in the process of developing two more terminals.

High Cost of Living

Meanwhile, the high cost of living may come dome if suggestions to amend the Financial Bill for the financial year 2023/2024 are passed. It promises to lower the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), as well as encourage the use of biomass fuel and the destruction of forests.

It also offers to provide tax incentives to companies that manufacture vaccine and biopharmaceutical products.

Besides that, the Bill also suggests an introduction of excise duty on imported fish and furniture as a way to ease the cost of living and boost production.

On tax incentives, the Bill seeks to provide an approved tax refund that will be paid or automatically offset against tax liability within a period of six months.

The revised Bill also suggests an introduction of a one-year amnesty on penalties and interest for the accrued tax debts to encourage tax debtors to come forward and make payments.

In achieving its agenda for the people, the government has also committed a total of Ksh.267.7 billion shillings.

The funds will be committed to 9 different value chains including cotton and textile, apparels, edible oil crop production, and dairy value chain among others.

To meet its goals, the government expects the economy to grow by 6.1 percent following a great trajectory in performance of the first quarter of the year, reflecting robust activity in the service sector and also in the wholesale and retail trade, accommodation, and food services, education and information and communication.

it now awaits the nod from the National Assembly following an endorsement by the Cabinet on Thursday.