Economy

Matiang’i re-introduces fee on ID replacement

fred

Fred Matiang’i, the Interior secretary. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Interior ministry has re-introduced application fee for replacing a national identity (ID) card in a move likely to boost government’s non-tax revenue streams.

Fred Matiang’i, the Interior secretary, has directed the National Registration Bureau to start levying Sh100 for replacement of lost, torn, worn out or mutilated IDs.

The service has been free since 2012 when the then Sh300 fee, which had been introduced in 2011 by the then Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang’, was waived to encourage registration of voters ahead of the 2013 General Election.

“The Registration of Persons Rules is amended in rule 8 by deleting the words “shall not pay any fees” appearing in paragraph (6) and substituting therefor the words ‘shall pay to the authorized officer a fee of one hundred shillings’,” Dr Matiang’i says in the notice.

Section 16 of the Registration of Persons Act, among other provisions, allows interior minister to proscribe the fees for a duplicate ID or for initial registration.

A person replacing a lost ID requires a police abstract while those with unserviceable one must surrender it to a registration officer and apply for a renewal, which takes about 10 days.

The Immigration department — under which issuance of passports, visas, work or residence permits and national IDs falls — is one of the biggest source of non-tax revenue for the government.

The department collected about Sh10.5 billion in 2016, principal secretary for Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa told the National Assembly’s committee on Security late last month.

The collections represented a Sh3.5 billion growth compared with 2015, largely because of automation of passport and visa services.