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{
    "id": 1003226,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1003226/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 310,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13373,
        "legal_name": "Owen Yaa Baya",
        "slug": "owen-yaa-baya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. This is a huge Budget and we have a big financing gap. As we discuss this Budget, we must focus on the existing financing gap. We collect about Kshs1.7 billion from taxes and our Budget is worth Kshs2.7 trillion. I foresee a scenario where we come back here to do amendments to raise money. Chances we can borrow from the domestic market are high, and you understand what happens to the economy once we do that. As we move to this Kshs2.7 trillion Budget, we must know where to get Kshs800 billion so that we can finance the many programmes that are proposed in the Budget. I would like to congratulate the Committee for dropping taxation on pensioners’ money. That is a move in the right direction. Pensioners earn less than what they are supposed to earn. We are now trying to put a tax on the earnings that they have. It is good that this has been realized and suspended, so that they continue to enjoy their pension. Two, taxation of the digital economy is a simple economic principle. If you want to grow a certain sector of an economy, give it time to grow before you start taxing it. It is too early for this country to start taxing the digital economy, digital platforms and the sales on the digital market that happen online. For us to give the young people a chance to show their abilities, we need to encourage them and drop this digital economy tax that we are imposing at this stage. I do not think this is the right time. There is an adage that says timing is very important when making a decision. For the growth of this economy, we need to give the digital economy time to grow and we should not start taxing young people who have put some effort in trying to market and sell things on digital platforms. I urge that when we go into the Committee of the whole House of this Bill, we drop this tax so that we give young people an opportunity to grow this economy, then at the opportune time, we can tax them. Third is on rental income. We saw the Leader of the Majority Party celebrating that we are now taxing less the rental income. He said that he hopes it will trickle down to the rent payer. However, I have learnt from some economists in this House that when you reduce an income tax, it does not necessarily go down to benefit people. It is just like when you reduce VAT on bread and hope that it will trickle down to the consumer of bread. When we reduce the income taxes on rental income, I do not think we have mechanisms to ensure that it trickles down to the people who are paying rent. In other words, we will be adding more money to those people who already have money. We need to look at other ways of raising money other than reducing the tax on rental income and hope that it will trickle down to the people. The other important thing which I need to speak about is the 14 per cent on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). I hope we will drop this when we move to the Committee of the whole 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."
}