Kenya's telecommunication giant, Safaricom has annnouced it will be hiking its call rates and short message service (SMS).
Effective from 17th midnight headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents.
The company has attributed recent changes to taxes affecting their services that were passed through the Finance Act 2018. In particular the Excise Duty tax applicable on Voice, SMS and Data services was increased from 10% to 15%. This is in addition to the prevailing Value Added Tax applicable to mobile services at the rate of 16%.
"Therefore, as a result of the increased taxes passed in the Finance Act 2018, we wish to notify our customers that from midnight tonight, the 18October 2018, our headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents," a press statement sent to newsrooms read