Safaricom subscribers will have to pay extra fees in interest after accessing their popular soft mobile loan dubbed Fuliza.
In a message sent to its customers on Tuesday, July 6, the giant telco said it made the decision of increasing the daily interest fees on its loan after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the 2021 Finance Act.
“Dear Customer, following the signing of the Finance Act 2021, starting July 6th, 2021 Fuliza daily fees will include 20% Excise Duty. Access fees remains at 1%. Dial *234# for the revised Fuliza charges,” the message sent to subscribers read.
Due to the passing of the same act, last week, the giant telco raised the cost of calls by 30 cents and SMS by 10 cents. It also increased the cost of fibre services.
In June, MPs through the departmental committee on finance and national planning proposed to increase the rate of excise duty on telephone and internet data services from 15 percent to 20 percent.
An increase at the rate of the excise duty will see the tax man collect more than Sh8 billion from Safaricom, Airtel and Telcom which are Kenya’s leading telcos.
Zuku also increased the cost of its 10mbps package to Sh3,999 from Sh3,500 while those who were paying for the ksh4,198 package now have to part with Sh4,598.
