More charges await Kenyans as NTSA announces plans to increase rates by up to 900 per cent

Kenyans will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets for services from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) if proposals to increase its service charges are actualized.

The authority is proposing an increase of up to 900% for services to fund its budget deficit amounting to over Ksh.2.3 billion.

In draft proposals by the NTSA, that are being subjected to stakeholder engagement, the road service licenses for public service vehicles will change with between 98% to 100% as a road license for a PSV with between 6-8 passengers moves from Ksh.2,700 to Ksh.5,400 with that of PSV with 26 passengers or more making a 98% rise to Ksh.8400.

inspection charges will also go up between 100% and 250% with vehicles below 3000 cc charged Ksh.2,000 shillings for inspection up from Ksh.1,000 for heavy commercial vehicles exceeding 5 tons, charges will move from Ksh.1,000 to Ksh.3,500 which is a 250% increase.

The cost of motor vehicle registration has also been proposed to go up by 100%.

Registration of vehicles below 1000cc will move from Ksh.1700 to Ksh.3400 while those 3001 and above cc will pay Ksh.16,600 up from Ksh.8,300.

If the proposals by NTSA are adopted, it will cost you 3900% more to change the particulars of the colour of your vehicle from Ksh.500 shillings to Ksh.20,000 while the transfer of ownership for motor vehicles not exceeding 1000cc will cost you five fold from Ksh.1,660 to Ksh.10,000. The transfer of ownership of other vehicles will go up by 100%.

The renewal of licenses for motor vehicle dealers is also proposed to go up. For a second hand motor vehicle dealers license, you will pay Ksh.100,000 up from between Ksh.4200 and Ksh.9600 which is an increment of over 2200%.

According to the board of directors at NTSA, the authority has been operating at a deficit and so they have had to make the changes to make NTSA sustainable.

As at June 30th this year, the authority had a budget deficit of Ksh.2.374 billion.

“The deficit is more than 500 every year and now it’s more than a billion in terms of deficit and we are looking at long term and our improvement is a long term one as our rates have not changed for the past 10 years,” said Paul Posh, board member at NTSA.

The board attributed the need to make changes in its rates to more responsibilities at NTSA which has necessitated more funding.

“Our capacity has been growing, our challenges too the number of roads, the number of inspection staions have been growing and so we will need more money,” adds Posh.

The proposals will be put through public participation and members of the public will have their say on the same.