New tax jolts mobile phone pricing

A new “radiation tax” is threatening to upset household budgets at a time when families are grappling with the rising cost of living despite the recent adoption of a less volatile method of tallying consumer price changes.

The tax is one of the sticking points in proposals by the Radiation Protection Board to beef up its revenues.

Besides proposing higher fees for its services, the board has broadened the range of items on which it can charge penalties for releasing harmful rays to the atmosphere to include mobile phone handsets, microwave ovens and transmission masts owned by telecommunications companies.

Industry players fear the new fees will dampen the recent growth in the telecommunications and consumer electronics sectors by pushing up retail prices for handsets, microwave ovens and other household items deemed to emit electromagnetic rays beyond the reach of the majority.

The board is seeking public views on the proposed levies, which some stakeholders have vowed to resist because they will mean additional taxation and a burden on consumers.

The development comes against the backdrop of international research findings that people who use phones with high radiation levels for over 10 years stand significantly higher risks of brain and salivary gland tumours.

If the proposed fees come into force, consumers buying goods such as microwave ovens and mobile handsets will have to pay an extra Sh3,000.

Students will also be charged more to access the board’s facilities during attachment.

Undergraduate students will be required to pay Sh5,000 per month while postgraduate students and those doing research will pay Sh10,000 and Sh20,000 respectively.

The board was previously only charging institutions a fee of Sh300 per year, which it has raised to Sh6,000 for secondary schools, Sh12,000 for colleges and Sh24,000 for research institutions.

The board was created by an Act of Parliament in 1980 to provide for the protection of the public and radiation workers from the dangers arising from the use of devices or material that produce ionizing radiation.

Apart from telecommunication firms and broadcasters who are supposed to pay an annual fee of Sh20,000 per mast or radio station tower, the regulator also intends to levy students on industry attachment or medical institutions using its equipment which emit electromagnetic waves.

The chairman of the Kenya Telecommunication Network Operators (KTNO), Joshua Chepkwony, says the proposed levies would translate into additional taxation for the industry which they were not ready to shoulder but would pass on to the end users if they were enforced.

Health risks

The telecommunication association has written to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), asking it to protect the industry which they say is being targeted as a source of revenue by other regulatory bodies.