Cooking gas VAT risks making Kenya’s disease burden worse

Widely available scientific evidence indicate that cooking with firewood, charcoal and any other smoke-emitting household fuel causes non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and death.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on June 14 said “persons living with NCDs are more at risk of becoming critically ill with corona virus disease than those without”.

The Constitution also gives Kenyans the right to good health and a healthy environment.

It is therefore disturbing that the Treasury still went ahead to propose Value Added Tax (VAT) on cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) in the Finance Bill, 2020 for implementation in 2021.

Imposing VAT on cooking gas will adversely impact Kenya’s aspired socio-economic transformation considering the positive impact of LPG on human health, environment conservation, local manufacturing and food security.

The goal of securing LPG as Kenya’s primary cooking fuel is to reduce the NCDs burden caused by energy sources that emit harmful smoke.

Currently, 84 per cent of Kenyans still cook using firewood, charcoal, dung and kerosene, which release a deadly cocktail of smokes associated with respiratory problems such as pneumonia, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.

The report of the government’s Kenya Household Cooking Sector Study, launched at the Clean Cooking Forum in November 2019, indicates that the aforementioned respiratory diseases are killing 21,650 Kenyans annually.

Further, 40 per cent of deaths among children under five are caused by respiratory diseases.

About 14 million Kenyans now suffer from respiratory diseases, which have been declared as being one of the country’s top five killers.

The 2019 Economic Survey launched in May has similar findings.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical professionals have encouraged cigarette smokers to reduce or stop the habit altogether as this may compound the ability of the body to fight the disease if infected.

A recent study by University of California, Berkeley indicated that the continuous exposure to the toxic pollutants that are released by cooking with charcoal or firewood is equivalent to smoking 400 cigarettes an hour. Children were found to be more susceptible to damage to their lungs because they spend time with their mothers in the kitchen.

This level of health damage is calamitous and yet preventable by implementing interventions that promote use of clean-burning, smoke-free fuel.

Promoting LPG consumption will also help Kenya increase its forest cover to mitigate against flooding.

Since April, more than 200 Kenyans have died and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes due to floods from heavy rains. This has been the pattern for many years.

Kenya has experienced the impacts of climate change on weather patterns on account of our poor environmental conservation.

The weather disruptions have adversely affected our agricultural productivity, making the country food insecure.

The flooding has additionally destroyed produce on the farms, significantly compromising the country’s food security.

The latest data indicates that out of Kenya’s 47 counties, only 16 have the United Nation- recommended forest cover of above 10 percent.

Kenya’s total forest cover stands at 7.4 percent.

We cannot achieve our target of 10 percent forest cover by 2030 unless we deliberately shift from the unsustainable use of charcoal and firewood — which are derived from our diminishing forests — to LPG.

And while at it we will preserve our water catchment areas and mitigate against climate change, improve our agricultural productivity and ensure our food security.

But any increase in the cost of cooking gas will reverse the current LPG penetration rate, with consumers resorting to charcoal and firewood for their household cooking requirements.

This will further ravage what is left of our forest cover.

The government policy of promoting the use LPG as the primary household cooking fuel and target of complete access to clean household cooking by 2028 can only be achieved by preserving the fiscal incentives and retaining a conducive investment environment.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mining in collaboration with other players have a well-documented action plan on increasing LPG demand, including increased local manufacturing of cooking gas cylinders.

If implemented the plan will increase the opportunity for employment in local cylinder manufacturing plants as well as in the construction of LPG storage depots and cylinder refilling and revalidation plants.

The growth momentum of the LPG sector, which has been largely supplemented by fiscal inducements (zero rated), must be retained as it will especially come in handy as a catalyst for recovery from the Covid-19 economic shocks.

Affordable LPG is the magic bullet that will help Kenya save on the national health budget as well as spur and guarantee progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on good health and wellbeing, gender equality, access to affordable, modern and clean energy, climate action and education.

Ms Manyara is Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA) general manager.