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{
    "id": 1037990,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1037990/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 392,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Gladys Wanga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "Ratification Act. This is so that we can look at them, change whatever we would like to change before they go for final signing. Therefore, there are many sections of this Agreement providing for taxation regarding income from immovable property, enterprises and taxation on dividends. For example, it provides that dividends paid by a company, which is resident, say in Kenya, to a resident other than that of the contracting State, which could be Mauritius, if you are taxed in Mauritius you could be taxed in Kenya, but at a capped rate. Additionally, those rates are capped within the Agreement. Taxation of royalties and taxation of technical fees... How do we treat our lecturers and professors either from Mauritius teaching here or from here teaching in Mauritius or students from Kenya working in Mauritius or from Mauritius working in Kenya or learning in Kenya and have some small income? How do we treat taxation? Hon. Speaker, during public participation some of the issues that the Tax Justice Network raised… They submitted that Parliament needs to scrutinise double taxation agreements as they sometimes present the following challenges: (a) It constrains national sovereignty since it overrides the domestic tax laws. (b) It gives away rights to tax foreign companies within Kenya. (c) It does not protect Kenyans These were the views presented by the Tax Justice Network. They also said there is lack of sufficient data to tell us whether there is an actual benefit the country derives from these double taxation agreements. Is it that we are benefiting anything? At the end of the day, apart from just good political and diplomatic relations, is there real benefit? They have urged that there could be actually real danger of loss of revenue through exemptions. Various exemptions could lead to loss of revenue. Foreign companies are likely to abuse the treaty by using loopholes to avoid paying taxes in Kenya. If you know there is a double taxation agreement here, rather than register your company here you go and register it in Mauritius, even though you are Kenyan so that you can benefit from exemptions in these double taxation agreements. These are some of the things that, if we have an opportunity as a House to thoroughly scrutinise those agreements, then we can only go with what is in the best interest of the country, rather than just some people negotiating somewhere and then signing the agreement and putting the country into these huge obligations, sometimes without necessary public participation. Therefore, even as we pass this Agreement, we would like to urge that looking at future agreements, Parliament should have a primary role and not just a passive role under the Statutory Instruments Act. Hon. Speaker, having examined this Agreement for avoidance of double taxation, the Committee, despite the concerns we have already raised, we recommend the House approves the notice as published. However, the future double taxation agreements follow a better path so that Kenyans feel protected sufficiently. Hon. Speaker, with those many remarks, I beg to move and ask my Vice-Chairperson, the Hon. Member for the “royal suburbs”, Hon. Isaac Ndirangu Waihenya to second."
}