General observation has shown that motor vehicles are cheaper in Uganda than in Kenya despite the fact that Uganda is a landlocked country and uses the Mombasa Port to get most of their imports.
According to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), import duty costs 25% of cost, insurance and freight of a motor vehicle to be imported also called CIF value.
In addition an importer pays 20% of CIF value (already mention in the preceding paragraph). Finally, Value Added Tax of 16% on CIF is paid for the car imported. On these taxes you need the services of a clearing and forwarding agent.
Car importers in Kenya pay the Import Declaration Fee (IDF) which is 2% of the CIF Payable.
Then the car importer pays the Railway Development Levy which is 1.5% of the customs value.
When planning to import a vehicle to Kenya, remember there is a 8 year limit on all imported vehicles. This is a strategy to ensure we do not import old vehicles into the Kenyan roads.
In comparison, Uganda’s Value Added Tax (VAT) is 18% while import duty is 6% according to Uganda’s Tax Structure FY 2017/2018.
The picture below features one of the vehicles imported from Uganda to Kenya. These vehicles are common on Kenyan roads because they are cheaper than buying in Kenya.
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