Reduction of Taxes of Solar Street Light is Very Urgent

Solar street light are get spread all over the world. Our earth needs the solar street lights urgently. But the high tax of the component of the solar powering product makes it difficult to use solar street lights in poor area or developing country.

Street lamps components attract 25 per cent duty and value added tax (VAT) of 16 per cent while complete lantern kits are exempted from the two taxes, but only when importers seek a refund from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Lighting Africa hopes to provide affordable and safe lighting including torches and heating systems to at least 2.5 million people by facilitating the sale of 500,000 off-grid lighting units by 2012 in Africa.

Kenya’s rural population and people living in the slums without electricity spend about Sh7,000 every year to buy kerosene and candles to light their homes, according to research by International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The Kenya government in the recent past has launched rural electrification program, but still the challenge remains high due to limited financing and the capacity of the existing power generation infrastructure to generate enough electricity.

Data on the number of solar lamps imported in Kenya is not yet available and IFC said it has contracted a local research company to carry out the survey. But estimates put total imports of the lamps at 60,000 units every year.

This number is likely to increase in the second half of the year when the IFC and the World Bank launch a major public campaign to encourage increased household use of solar lamps.

As solar street lights can provide lighting for at least five days without recharge and has a life-span of at least five years. It’s very good option for developing country that could not afford the heavy Budget of laying cable for conventional street lights.

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