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{
"id": 1569862,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569862/?format=api",
"text_counter": 74,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Speaker, in line with the question by the Senator for Kirinyaga on measures to reduce double taxation, unnecessary taxes and overburdening of farmers and Kenyans in general, I would like the Cabinet Secretary to address one question. Mr. Speaker, we have heard the Ministry, actually the Cabinet Secretary himself, taking credit that this year's Finance Bill has no new taxes. However, I know it is credit to the Gen Z who have struck the fear of God in this Government. They will not attempt to bring new taxes. What are you doing about existing taxation, Cabinet Secretary, that you found, including the housing levy, the increase in pay and VAT on fuel that has seen the cost of taxes on a litre of petrol exceeding the cost of the product? I thank you, Hon. Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1569863,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569863/?format=api",
"text_counter": 75,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Mo Fire."
},
{
"id": 1569864,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569864/?format=api",
"text_counter": 76,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Gataya Mo Fire",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Mine is a supplementary question to Cabinet Secretary. This country has witnessed for decades some grievous disparities in distribution of developments across the country. Talk of roads, water, industries and so forth. So, as the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the National Treasury, is there any written policy that is supposed to guide you on how you are supposed to distribute the national development? I am asking this, on behalf of very many Kenyans. You find some areas have been neglected for decades while other areas are endowed with better roads, water and so forth. Is there any existing policy, for that matter, that a Kenyan can quote maybe from Tharaka or from North Eeastern or from any other part of this country where there are no such kind of developments? What criteria do you use to determine where you are supposed to put up roads, water, and so forth? Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1569865,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569865/?format=api",
"text_counter": 77,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Cabinet Secretary, if you are in a position to respond to that question, you may, because it is not related to the primary question. You have the Floor, Senate Majority Leader."
},
{
"id": 1569866,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569866/?format=api",
"text_counter": 78,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have a question to the Cabinet Secretary with regards to his response on page 6. Unfortunately, Cabinet Secretary, I will have to tell you that none of these items that you have listed was done to the tea farmers. This is a topic very close to my heart. Therefore, I know every single intervention that is done. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1569867,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569867/?format=api",
"text_counter": 79,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": null,
"content": "In the fiscal year that you are referring to, Financial Year 2023-2024, you have quoted in your response, there was provision of processing equipment to tea cooperatives. It is now in this financial year that there is an attempt to allocate Kshs3.5 billion to support aging tea factories. I am not even sure whether the National Assembly Committee on Finance and Budget will maintain it. So, I will have to refer to the records and the people in the Ministry whether any of this has been done. To the best of my knowledge, there is no tea cooperative that was supported with this. With regards to establishment of this, what he is calling tea value addition hub, construction is yet to begin of the common user facility that the Government promised tea farmers in the country. Therefore, it will be important for the Cabinet Secretary to let us know when the construction of this common user facility will commence. There was a promise of a billion shillings to KTDA through its subsidiary KETEPA that this facility was to be set up in Kericho. I do not know to this date when that facility will be available. The same can be said about part (c) of the question, because it needs to be quantifiable. If the Cabinet Secretary had given us the specific figure of how much that export market development the Government committed to, we would appreciate, because it is one of the interventions that we seriously need. Lastly, just a comment to the Cabinet Secretary because you know we are representatives of people. When there is an opportunity. I appreciate that transportation of tea to factories is Value Added Tax (VAT) exempted. I do not understand why in every Finance Bill, it is usually removed. Last year, it had to be removed. In this year's proposal, transportation of sugarcane to factories is subject to VAT. I do not know why the National Treasury wants to treat tea and sugarcane farmers separately, yet they are all citizens of this Republic. While I appreciate what is done for tea farmers, I would wish that the National Treasury does the same for sugarcane farmers. I thank you."
},
{
"id": 1569868,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569868/?format=api",
"text_counter": 80,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you have three minutes to respond."
},
{
"id": 1569869,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569869/?format=api",
"text_counter": 81,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. John Mbadi",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Mr. Speaker, I will try to be fast. Yes, it is true that we have not made major changes in taxes that would disadvantage the taxpayer or individual taxpayers in terms of reducing their disposable income. This was a commitment. I know Sen. Sifuna is attributing it exclusively to Gen Z. This is partly true and partly not true. Sen. Sifuna knows my stand on taxes. Even before I joined the Cabinet or the Executive, I am one person who does not believe that higher taxes would lead to more revenue, or higher tax rates. That is my stand and I have spoken about it. Maybe we share that idea with the Gen Z, so it cannot be exclusively the Gen Z's ideas. I believe the Government is also sold to the idea that now, where we have reached, we cannot go further to reduce disposable income. On the housing levy, there is a discussion around seeing how to restructure it, because, again, it has serious benefits, in my view. Quite a number of projects are coming up, but at the same time, the individual employees, those with pay slips, have complaints, which you cannot ignore. A lot of restructuring is going on. I am sure that more pronouncements will come in due course. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1569870,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569870/?format=api",
"text_counter": 82,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. John Mbadi",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning",
"speaker": null,
"content": "On the issue of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), this financial year, when we were preparing the Finance Bill, we even did some simulation on how to reduce the PAYE. What stopped us from implementing it in this Finance Bill - and I think we are going to consider it in the next Finance Bill alongside the reduction of Corporate Tax from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, we considered reducing to 28 per cent - was the failure by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to meet its revenue targets. We thought that as we carry along with the reforms at the KRA, we should not be doing too many things at the same time. Let us see what the reforms at the KRA, in terms of automation and making it efficient, is yielding to us, then we can move to the next step of reducing the tax rates to increase disposable income. However, it is an idea that I support, Sen. Sifuna. That also goes to the heart of fuel levy or the road maintenance fuel levy. On distribution of development across the country, yes, Senator, it is true that over the years since Independence, we have not been very fair and objective as a country in terms of distributing our budgetary allocations to regions. This is what has brought the tension that we have in the country where people believe that for you to get development, then your people should be the ones to be in power. Devolution was meant to cure this, but at the same time, it has not been fully cured. We are trying. It is not something that you are going to do in a day, to try as much as possible to be equitable in the distribution of resources. This budget that we have produced has not fixed it, but addresses it to some extent. Take, for example, and I have given this example, since Independence, the children living along Tana River have been eaten by crocodiles as they cross River Tana going to school. One bridge costs just Kshs100 million yet you find many of us have tarmac roads up to our homes. It is not fair. Many of us have piped water in our houses, even in the rural areas yet those children in Tana River, for just Kshs100 million, have been eaten by crocodiles. We cannot live in such a country of inequitable resource distribution. Dadaab Constituency, for example, is going to see the first tarmac road."
},
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"id": 1569871,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569871/?format=api",
"text_counter": 83,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " You have 30 more seconds."
}
]
}