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{
    "id": 1003201,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1003201/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 285,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Alego-Usonga, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Samuel Atandi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13290,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Onunga Atandi",
        "slug": "samuel-onunga-atandi"
    },
    "content": "The other proposal which I support is on tax procedures. There is an introduction of voluntary tax disclosure which is going to allow people with tax issues to come out and declare them, and then negotiate with Kenya Revenue Authority. This proposal is timely because in the past, Kenyans have complained about the manner in which KRA executes its tax recovery mechanisms. Even the President complained that KRA was being vicious in the way it was seeking to recover tax from people who have defaulted. A case in point is when we complained that KRA was being used to undermine local companies and hardworking Kenyans. Most Kenyans were very unhappy when companies such as Keroche were arraigned in court. While we do not oppose criminal prosecution of tax defaulters, but KRA must employ other mechanisms such as what we are introducing here, which is going to allow them to engage tax defaulters and people who have tax issues. The KRA is going to talk to them and they are going to have a mechanism of payment. Personally, I have been opposed to prosecution of tax defaulters because, first of all, the Judiciary is not effective. If you take a tax defaulter to court today, the case will take 10 years. For a company that is being prosecuted in court, its output will not be the same as a company that is negotiating with KRA on those issues. Therefore, this proposal, according to me, is going to help even KRA to recover more taxes because the people who have tax issues are going to come out and engage KRA and discuss the issues. Even though this law has a period in which it will be applied, I plead that it needs to be extended so that it serves this economy for long."
}