Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 804886,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/804886/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Henry Rotich",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13142,
        "legal_name": "Henry Rotich",
        "slug": "henry-rotich"
    },
    "content": "tax on insurance premium paid to non-residents, excluding insurance premium paid for insurance of aircraft. The Government is committed to attract investors into the country. To facilitate investment by targeted investors, the Government will provide special fiscal incentives through a special operating framework arrangement that outlines the special conditions and deliverables that are measurable and with specific timeliness that must be met. I propose to develop a framework to introduce special incentives in the VAT Act, Excise Duty Act, and Miscellaneous Fees and Levies Act, and provide a preferential tax rate under the Income Tax Act in order to encourage investments. The Government is dedicated to support the manufacturing sector as a pillar of the Big Four Plan. The manufacturers have raised concern regarding the high cost of electricity. The Government is committed to reducing this cost to support the manufacturing sector. In order to mitigate the cost of production, I propose to amend the Income Tax Act to provide a deduction of 30 per cent of the total electricity bill by manufacturers from corporate profit in addition to normal deduction, subject to the conditions to be set by the Ministry of Energy. In 2016, the Tax Procedures Act was amended to provide a tax amnesty on income declared for the year 2016 by a person who earned taxable income outside Kenya. In 2017, I extended the period for applying for amnesty from 30th December 2017 to 30th June 2018 for the year of income 2016. However, despite the extension, the uptake of amnesty has been low, partly due to concerns that when the monies are returned, questions will be raised regarding the source as required by Financial Reporting Centre. In this regard, and in order to encourage the uptake of the amnesty, I propose to extend the period of the amnesty from 30th June 2018 to 30th June 2019 and the year of income declaration to be 2017. Further, I propose to provide that funds transferred under the amnesty shall be exempt from the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act and any other Act relating to reporting and investigation of financial transactions, to the extent of the source of the funds. This exemption, however, does extend to proceeds from terrorism, poaching and drug trafficking. Despite imposing a 1 per cent late payment interest on unpaid taxes, we have noted that a number of taxpayers are filing returns without payment of the taxes due. I am, therefore, proposing to amend the Tax Procedure Act to increase the rate of late payment interest to 2 per cent, and also introduce a 20 per cent late payment penalty. This will promote tax compliance among taxpayers and boost our revenue mobilisation efforts to provide the much-needed funds to support the Big Four Plan. The Government has been working on simplifying and facilitating filing of self- assessment tax returns by taxpayers. In order to enhance the process for submission of tax returns through the i-Tax System, I propose to amend the Tax Procedure Act, to provide for time limits in the application and extension of time to file a return as well as allow taxpayers to amend self- assessment return. In the year 2015, I exempted regulatory authorities from payment of corporate tax and provided that these authorities remit 90 per cent of their surpluses to the Consolidated Fund. However, these authorities have not been consistent in remitting the surplus to the Consolidated Fund. In this regard, I propose to amend the Kenya Revenue Authority Act and the Public Finance Management Regulations to allow the Kenya Revenue Authority to collect the surpluses from the regulatory authorities and remit them to the Consolidated Fund promptly. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}