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{
    "id": 1003214,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1003214/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": "The other thing is on the Tax Procedures Act amendment that he proposes. I think the idea is to also ensure that those people who have not been paying taxes as expected, over a period of time, are brought into the tax bracket and they pay. In fact, he is talking about five years. The idea is to issue that relief as an incentive that, if one has not been paying taxes, he or she can now pay what he or she owes over the last five years. However, one will not have to pay penalties and there will be no interest on what one owes. So, I think that is really important. Considering that the proposal is to take it for another three years, that will help to raise quite a lot of money for the Government. There are quite a lot of benefits that I have seen in the Finance Bill, not to forget that just recently, we passed another Bill which is similar to this. It was giving incentives that helped. The benefit that we received first was that the Income Tax was reduced from 30 per cent to 25 per cent. The Turnover Tax was reduced from 3 per cent to 1 per cent and the Value Added Tax was reduced from 16 per cent to 14 per cent. There are others, other than those incentives. Looking at the Budget, those incentives are costing the Exchequer about Kshs172 billion. That is about 10 per cent. So, there is need to raise more money so that we can cover that deficit. What proposals has he further given to ensure that he helps the economy? One is that he is intending to protect local industries. How does he propose to do that? It is by ensuring that Import Duty is still charged at 35 per cent on imports for iron and steel products for a further one year. Again, he proposes that duty on paper and paperboard products, again, will be charged at 25 per cent for a further one year. In other words, he is ensuring that, if you are importing, you pay more for products that we can produce locally. That means local industries will be protected from international competition. He also proposes that there will be a charge of 25 per cent import duty on any leather product in order to protect that industry - the local leather industry and the footwear industry. I am happy because I come from the Machakos region and the Kenani Leather Industry is in that region. He also proposes to increase import duty on electrical items and accessories from 25 per cent to 30 per cent. Basically, the idea is that you are discouraging people from importing if you are increasing import duty. It goes together with the plan of ensuring that we buy local and build Kenya. There is also the proposal to import duty free so that we can encourage local industry to import those inputs that we do not have. Those are inputs for mobile phones assembly. The world is going towards the use of telephones and mobile phones all over. Even when you talk about our children who are at home, many of them are using mobile phones even for their education. It is because many schools have gone into that technology because children are too idle. In fact, they have talked about over 4,000 students who are pregnant in Machakos County because of this business of staying at home. They are not going to school. So, it is important when mobile phones are more accessible. Then schools and teachers can communicate with their learners. Any input for mobile phones being zero-rated is good. There is no duty on inputs for the production of diapers. It is the same for inputs of making masks, sanitizers, ventilators and PPEs, those that deal directly with the fight against this Corona virus. I hope this does not go into the finished goods because a lot of this can be produced locally. So, it is important that it just be the inputs and not the finished products. Further exemptions from the Value Added Tax are on maize and corn and ambulance services. So, there is a lot of benefit that this Finance Bill has proposed to Kenyans. The challenge that I see is in the imposition of the Digital Service Tax, at 1.5 per cent. My only concern with this is not about the idea to tax the digital economy. That is where business is being done. People who want to buy food do so online. People who want to pay for services do so online. Almost everything has gone online but, when you impose a 1.5 per cent Digital Service The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}