The Finance Act, 2021, which was assented into law by the President of Kenya on 29 June 2021, makes a raft of changes to Kenya’s tax regime including the Income Tax Act, the Value Added Tax Act, the Tax Procedures Act, the Miscellaneous Fees and Levies Act and the Excise Duty Act, among others. Most amendments proposed under the Finance Bill, 2021 were approved by Parliament as set out, while others amendments we approved with modifications.
Data from the Tanzania Investment Centre has shown that in the past few months from March to June, the country has secured 92 major investments worth USD 2.6 billion.
The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning (Lands Ministry) has been spearheading various projects for slightly over a year including: the digitisation of records, geo-referencing of land parcel boundaries, conversion of titles, and national titling amongst other institutional reforms.
ALN Kenya | Anjarwalla & Khanna recently represented a taxpayer before the Tax Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) in an appeal on whether product gains on petroleum products should be subjected to additional duties and levies.
The implementation of the Minimum Tax has been suspended, pending the hearing and determination of various petitions filed before the High Court.
On 30 March 2021, the President, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, signed into law the Employment (Amendment) Act, 2021 (the Act). The Act was one of 3 Employment (Amendment) Bills introduced in 2019[1], and it is the only one that has currently been passed into law. The Act came into force on 15 April 2021, following its gazettement through Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 53 (Acts No. 2).
On 26 November 2010, the Kenyan and South African Governments entered into a Double Taxation Agreement (the DTA) whose purpose was to ensure resident persons and resident companies avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion with respect to income taxes. The DTA subsequently entered in force on 1 January 2016.
In March 2021, the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology (MoICT) published amendments to the equity participation requirement contained in the National ICT Policy Guidelines, 2020 (ICT Policy) that was gazetted in August 2020 (the Amendment Notice) that are aimed at providing clarity to the initial policy.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, through a special Gazette Notice No. 3076 published on 29 March 2021 (the Gazette Notice), appointed a taskforce primarily assigned with undertaking a comprehensive review and analysis of all power purchase agreements (PPA) entered into between various independent power producers (IPPs) and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) (the Taskforce).
Article 20 of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement establishes a Dispute Settlement Mechanism (the DSM) that will be administered by the Protocol on Rules and Procedures on the Settlement of Disputes (the Protocol). The Protocol entered into force on 20 May 2019 together with the AfCFTA Agreement, the Protocol on Trade in Goods, and the Protocol on Trade in Services. Notably, the wording of the Protocol borrows heavily from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).
