{"id":117390,"date":"2025-07-01T06:04:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/07\/01\/high-court-stops-kras-new-tax-plan-on-motor-vehicles\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T06:04:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T06:04:55","slug":"high-court-stops-kras-new-tax-plan-on-motor-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/high-court-stops-kras-new-tax-plan-on-motor-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court stops KRA\u2019s new tax plan on motor vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 1 \u2013 The High Court has halted the implementation of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax on motor vehicles pending the hearing and determination of a petition against it. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The updated Current Retail Selling Price (CRSP) schedule for used motor vehicles was set to take effect on July 1.<\/p>\n

The order stays both the circular dated May 22, 2025 (Ref: C&BC\/HQ\/1) titled \u201cForwarding of the Updated CRSP List\u201d and a public notice dated May 30, 2025, published on KRA\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

According to the petitioner, the new CRSP list was introduced without meaningful public participation, in violation of constitutional requirements under Article 10 and Article 201, which mandate inclusive engagement in legislative and public finance processes.<\/p>\n

While KRA stated that it had consulted \u201cstakeholders,\u201d the petitioner contends that such consultations were narrowly confined to car dealers, excluding consumers and the general public.<\/p>\n

The court has been urged to compel KRA to produce proof of the identities of these so-called stakeholders and details of the engagement process.<\/p>\n

Further, the petition claims that the CRSP schedule\u2014issued by KRA\u2019s Commissioner for Customs and Border Control and Commissioner General\u2014derives its authority from Section 122 and the Fourth Schedule of the EAC Customs Act and is therefore subject to Article 94(6) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the CRSP qualifies as a statutory instrument under the Statutory Instruments Act, and should have complied with procedural requirements including laying before Parliament, which it allegedly failed to do.<\/p>\n

The petitioner also challenges the 30-day implementation notice, terming it unreasonable, arbitrary, and a violation of Article 47 of the Constitution, which guarantees fair administrative action.<\/p>\n

It is argued that the short notice period fails to account for the legitimate expectations of importers and members of the public who placed vehicle shipment orders under the existing 2019 CRSP schedule.<\/p>\n

Citing industry practice, the petition highlights that a typical vehicle import process\u2014spanning procurement, shipping, and clearance\u2014can take between 3 to 6 months.<\/p>\n

As such, the abrupt shift risks unfairly penalizing importers who had already committed funds based on the previous valuation framework.<\/p>\n

The court suspended the implementation of the revised CRSP list until July 17, 2025, and directed that the application, petition, and all related documents be served on the respondents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impugned CRSP was hurriedly assembled and is pervaded with fundamental errors and omissions that impugn its certainty as a tax base. For instance, it omits and\/or fails to provide for several vehicle models that are Imported into the country by car dealers and individual customers. In other instances, it erroneously matches car models with non-existent features including wrong fuel types, chassis numbers and attaches different values to the same car model. Some of these vehicles are already in the high seas enroute to the country,\u201d reads court papers<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 1 \u2013 The High Court has halted the implementation of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax on motor vehicles pending the hearing and determination of a petition against it. \u00a0 The updated Current Retail Selling Price (CRSP) schedule for used motor vehicles was set to take effect on July 1. The order stays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}