Nairobi, Feb. 21 -- The Kenyan government has raided the pockets of fuel consumers once again after it tripled the tax payable to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) for every litre of the commodity purchased.

The Ministry of Energy last week increased the Petroleum Regulatory Levy to Ksh0.75 per litre up from Ksh0.25.

The levy is one of nine taxes and levies that are charged on fuel and has been increased to fund the operations of the energy regulator.

The others are excise duty, Road Maintenance Levy, Petroleum Development Levy, Railway Development Levy, Anti-Adulteration Levy, Merchant Shipping Levy, Import Declaration Fee and Value Added Tax (VAT).

The increase of the levy last week went largely unnoticed because ...