The Bill, which was published last month by the County Budget and Appropriation Committee, proposes to raise fees for saloon cars parked in the CBD to Sh300 and Sh200 for those parked outside the CBD/FILE
The Bill, which was published last month by the County Budget and Appropriation Committee, proposes to raise fees for saloon cars parked in the CBD to Sh300 and Sh200 for those parked outside the CBD.
According to the Bill – which is expected to come up for debate next week – saloon cars parked in emerging business centres like Westlands, Ngara, Highridge, Upper Hill, Community, Ngara, Industrial Area, Gigiri, Lavington and Karen will draw the same fee as those in the CBD.
Areas classified as being outside CBD include Buru Buru Shopping Centre, Pangani, Muthaiga, Eastleigh, Ngong Road, Kombo Munyiri, New Pumwani Road, Langata Road, Kariokor and Ziwani Shopping Centre.
Parking in non-automated areas with the CBD will go up by Sh200 shillings to Sh400 shillings while automated parking will attract a charge of Sh50 per hour. Loss of your parking ticket will attract a fine of Sh1,000.
If the Bill is approved, motorists seeking monthly seasonal parking tickets will part with Sh5,000 from Sh2,000, while those on quarterly season tickets will pay Sh12,000 from Sh5,500.
The County government proposed to introduce half year and full year season ticket which will retail as Sh34,000 and Sh58,000 respectively.
The Bill provides for the various taxes, fees and charges for services, and for other revenue raising measures by the county government and shall come into operation on such a date as the County Finance Executive Committee Member with the concurrence of the Governor may appoint.
Different dates may be appointed for different provisions.
Previous attempts by City Hall to review the parking levies have failed after the court ruled that the proposed new charges were introduced in contravention of the provisions of the Traffic Act.
The High Court last year permanently stopped the defunct Nairobi City Council from increasing parking fees within the central business district.
The then Council Town Clerk Phillip Kisia had published a Gazette Notice on October 2010 in which it revised its parking charges from Sh140 to Sh300 for private cars and Sh500 to Sh1,000 for public service vehicles.
The decisions were contested by the Matatu Welfare Association among others who argued they submitted that they were denied the right to natural justice by not being given a chance to file objections to the new levies. This was in breach of their legitimate expectations, they said.
Another Bill, the Nairobi City County Tax Waivers Administration Bill, 2013, that seeks to give the Governor’s office powers to grant tax waivers is also scheduled to go for its second reading this week.
This Bill will seek to transfer the powers of granting tax waivers from the Local Government ministry to the governor. It also seeks to set the guidelines for such waivers including the recovery of a percentage of the money owed as one of the grounds.
Such waivers will be granted by the county finance officer with the written concurrence of the governor. Such proposed waivers should be published in the Kenya Gazette for 14 days to invite public comment before they are effected.
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