Angelica _ann wrote:whiteowl wrote:Njunge wrote:Queen wrote:whiteowl wrote:Telecom and Airtel deposits are still working.Only mpesa was shut down.
True, Sportpesa confirmed that on Twitter yesterday.
What was the point then?
Whatever he is doing is not banning betting firms and "saving the youth". These govt guys have some other motive.Also the tax story doesn't add up.KRA has given Sportpesa top taxpayer award 3 years in a row.
But it was real witch-hunting mpaka they influence CBK to notify banks that the annual trading license have not been renewed. Which banks asks for annual licenses for you to operate the account.
no witch hunting here. all betting firms were given time to put their house in order otherwise their licenses would not be renewed. and yeah, betting is a regulated industry (like banks, insurance companies, telecommunication companies etc) whose licensing is pretty competitive, subject to certain conditions and renewable.
we should be in fact cheering the government for finally bringing some sanity in this sector which had been fraught with incompetent regulation and enforcement.
like with banks and telecom companies the competent authority not only wanted tax compliance but also vetting and approval of shareholders and directors. by shareholders and directors they always insist on knowing the actual natural persons. so if they are companies they insist on knowing the people behind the companies and will ask for details until ultimately they get the natural persons even if it takes going through thousands of proxy companies. if the people are not acceptable to the competent authority then the licenses don't get issued or renewed.
ask yourself this question; if you were unable to know the identify of the shareholders and directors behind a bank or insurance company or if their had tax problems, will you be against the cbk suspending its license?
sportpesa seemingly has two problems - tax and the suitability of the natural persons behind them. those are the issues they need to address.
and it is not only sportpesa whose license was not renewed - more than twenty companies were affected.
so sportpesa needs to stop all the misleading pr campaign and put its house in order.