Tea traders at the Mombasa Tea Auction are counting losses after the collapse of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) payment system, affecting the processing exports at Mombasa Port.
On Thursday, the traders said they had lost Sh2.9 billion ($23 million) in one week due to the delayed export of tea at the Port of Mombasa occasioned by the downtime of KRA payment systems.
The East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA), which runs the auction, said that 150 containers of tea could not be exported last week.
EATTA Managing Director George Omuga KRA’s export payment systems (MSS levy) downtime, failure of the Port Scanners, and the perennial ICMS systems failure had resulted in container mapping challenges.
Omuga said the halting of exports will have negative ripple effects at the Mombasa Tea Auction, which may further depress tea prices that have recently shown improvements at the tea auction.
The MD said if the problem of delays in payment systems persists, they will be forced to call off the weekly auction, leading to a loss of Sh3.2 billion a week .
He said despite the frequent meetings with organisation concerned nothing has been done to address the situation
“We have been engaging KRA, KENTRADE, and KPA Port Health who are involved in the export process. We need an alternative system that backs the ICMS. By Joackim Bwana, The Standard
