Nairobi, March 1 -- A court has cleared the first legal hurdle for the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to implement higher excise stamp fees for beer, bottled water and cosmetics.

High Court judge Hedwig Ong'udi on Tuesday dismissed an application by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) seeking to stop the KRA from implementing regulations imposing costlier security stamps.

The decision paves the way for the taxman to continue collecting views from the public on the Excise Duty (Excise Goods Management System) (Amendment) Regulations, 2023.

Enforcing the proposed regulations will raise the cost of excise stamps for the products by up to four times.

Justice Ong'undi said that the dispute was lodged prematurely because the disputed regulations ...