Mombasa County Finance Act, 2013 and 2014 states that any goods offloaded within the county must be paid for. [Photo/ nation.co.ke]
The Mombasa County Government has received reprieve after the High Court ruled that the county has authority to collect taxes on all goods offloaded and sold within its borders.This comes after Coast Calcium Limited moved to court seeking to have the county banned from collecting the offloading charges.Coast Calcium mines lime from Kwale County where they said they also pay cess to the local county government, hence are being taxed twice. In his ruling, High Court Judge Erick Ogola said the Mombasa County Finance Act, 2013 and 2014 states that any goods offloaded within the county must be paid for, contrary to the petitioner's claim that the Act did not provide for such. "I have carefully perused the Acts and found out that the Mombasa County Finance Act, 2014 does provide for the payment of cess and offloading charges," said Judge Ogola, as quoted by Business Daily.He dismissed Coast Calcium's claims that the Act did not have such provisions as untrue and misleading and ordered them to pay cess whenever their goods are offloaded within Mombasa. "The allegation by the petitioner that cess fee is not provided for in the Act is therefore untrue. Therefore, it is clear that cess is payable by the petitioner whenever their goods get to Mombasa County," said Ogola.