Taxman tapped Sh409b from Safaricom in five years
Lewis Njoka @LewisNjoka
Safaricom paid Sh98 billion in duties and taxes last year making it the top contributor to government revenues.
In the past five years, the company’s cumulative taxes surged to Sh409 billion, with dividends to the government standing at Sh95 billion.
“As a sustainable business, we continue to advocate for these taxes to be used efficiently and in a transparent and accountable manner,” said Safaricom chief executive, Peter Ndegwa.
According to an independent true value assessment in Safaricom’s latest sustainability report, the telco sustained over one million jobs directly and indirectly in the last financial year, and paid Sh58 billion to local suppliers.
True value is an impact modelling tool the company uses to quantify positive and negative impact on society, the environment and the economy, in monetary terms.
The report estimates the firm’s actual value created by Safaricom in the last financial year was Sh654 billion, which is nine times the financial profit the company earned during the period.
“Most noteworthy was the growing contribution from social externalities, particularly through the social value created by M-Pesa as the product continues to grow and evolve,” Ndegwa said when Safaricom received top taxpayer award from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
As per the report, Safaricom contributed a total of six per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
