Kenya to scrap tax on digital set-top boxes after EAC deal

Kenya has won approval from East African Community (EAC) partners to remove taxes on set-top digital TV converter boxes, Business Daily reported. The tax exemption aims to make set-top boxes affordable and cuts the cost by 25 percent. They currently sell for between KES 3,000 and KES 10,000. The deadline for the switchover to digital broadcasting is next year. The decision was reached by a committee of the regional ministers of transport, communication and meteorology in Arusha two weeks ago. This paves the way for the region's finance ministers to scrap the 25 percent common external tariff applicable on such items. Kenya has been lobbying to remove custom taxes on the equipment since late 2009 when President Kibaki directed the Treasury to make them affordable, but the region's Custom Union Management Act requires consensus from all the five EAC states to do so.