KJSEA 2025 Maths Q33 — Import Duty, Excise Duty & VAT

KJSEA 2025 Grade 9 Numbers

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The Question

“Festus imported a printing machine with a customs value of 1,200,000 shillings. He was charged import duty at 20%, excise duty at 18% and value added tax (VAT) at 16%. Find each of these amounts.”

1

Understand what the percentages act on

Each of the three charges is worked out as a percentage of the customs value, which is the declared value of the machine. Here that customs value is one point two million shillings. To find any percentage of an amount you multiply the percentage, written as a fraction of one hundred, by the amount. Getting this base right is the key to the whole question.

Customs value=1 200 000 shillings\text{Customs value} = 1\,200\,000 \text{ shillings}
2

Find the import duty (20%)

Import duty is charged at twenty percent of the customs value. Convert twenty percent to a fraction over one hundred and multiply it by one point two million. This gives the amount Festus pays as import duty.

Import duty=20100×1 200 000\text{Import duty} = \frac{20}{100} \times 1\,200\,000
=240 000 shillings= 240\,000 \text{ shillings}
3

Find the excise duty (18%)

Excise duty is charged at eighteen percent of the same customs value. Again write eighteen percent as a fraction over one hundred and multiply by one point two million to get the excise duty amount.

Excise duty=18100×1 200 000\text{Excise duty} = \frac{18}{100} \times 1\,200\,000
=216 000 shillings= 216\,000 \text{ shillings}
4

Find the value added tax (16%)

Value added tax is charged at sixteen percent of the customs value. Write sixteen percent as a fraction over one hundred and multiply by one point two million to find the VAT amount.

VAT=16100×1 200 000\text{VAT} = \frac{16}{100} \times 1\,200\,000
=192 000 shillings= 192\,000 \text{ shillings}

Final Result

The import duty is 240,000 shillings, the excise duty is 216,000 shillings, and the value added tax (VAT) is 192,000 shillings.

Why this method works

A percentage simply means 'out of one hundred', so finding a percentage of an amount is a scaling of that amount. Dividing the rate by one hundred turns it into a decimal fraction of the whole, and multiplying by the customs value shares out exactly that portion. Because every charge here is based on the same fixed customs value, the size of each tax depends only on its rate: the higher the rate, the larger the amount, which is why the twenty percent import duty is the biggest of the three and the sixteen percent VAT the smallest.

✓

As a check, higher rates give larger amounts: 240,000 (20%) is greater than 216,000 (18%), which is greater than 192,000 (16%) — consistent with their percentages.