Mombasa hoteliers reject new county government’s tax ideas

More arguments are brewing over plans by the Mombasa County Government to slap yet more taxes on the already overburdened hotels and resorts at the coast.

More arguments are brewing over plans by the Mombasa County Government to slap yet more taxes on the already overburdened hotels and resorts at the coast. Reeling from low occupancies as a result of poor perception as much as real incidents in the past, coastal resorts are up in arms over plans by the county government to tax them more before any improvements in service levels have been seen.

“Let them collect the rubbish, keep the city clean, improve security, ensure the hotels have enough water and are connected to the main sewerage lines and then come back and discuss, not demand, their need to get something in return. We as hoteliers are already overburdened by taxes as it is, plus a lot of different licenses we have to buy year after year, so this is a big fat NO for the county government. In fact, across the country people and businesses are waking up to the sad reality that we voted for a change in the constitution which is now resulting in us being squeezed for money like never before. More and more of my colleagues in fact think we made a mistake to accept a those elements in the new constitution which are just eating our taxes and have not brought any benefits for wananchi or businesses until now,” ranted a regular coast based tourism source yesterday evening when passing on the information.

Both the Mombasa and Coast Tourism Association chairman Mohammed Hersi as well as the Coast branch executive of the Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers, have denounced the new tax proposal on behalf of their membership.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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