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{
    "id": 1043556,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1043556/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 188,
    "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": "However, when we are trying to stir up our economy and create jobs, there must be incentives for people who manufacture locally so that they are able to claim input VAT and therefore be able to compete with the people who bring items from outside. In any case, they should even be cheaper than those who bring items from outside. However, if we do not create a conducive environment, then our factories will close and all we have to do is wait for imports from China and other places. That is a provision that even during public participation was heavily supported by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, KEPSA, private sector, ICPAK, and others saying that this will stir up growth locally. It is a big debate. However, we must show leadership. Paying taxes is not a popular debate. We rather people pay taxes at zero per cent, but Government must also move and provide services. Children are now going back to school. We must pay bursaries for the children using CDF and other programmes. We must provide infrastructure in those schools to enable social distancing. We are saying the children must be provided with masks. So, if we stand here and all become populist and say nobody should pay taxes, then we will all be stranded and we will all have to go back home with a Government that is grounded. Therefore, the easier path to walk today will be to say 'do not tax Kenyans, do not revert to the usual.' However, the more rational debate is: 'Can we go back to where we were so that even as we continue to stabilise and go back to normal...' We have been talking about Post-COVID-19 but, the question is: Will there ever be post-COVID-19? Or is COVID-19 a matter that we now have to live within our daily lives? We must continue to go to work, our farms, do our businesses despite or in spite of COVID-19. There is no day we will sit and say this is the day now COVID-19 is over and we can go back to our Post-COVID-19 period. Therefore, our Committee has considered these amendments to our tax laws. We will be making some amendments based on our discussions with stakeholders, but largely, we support that we go back to the tax regime that we had so that the Government can also move. The bigger question in reduction, for example, on a tax VAT, when we debated it in this House, we asked: Is the common mwananchi going to benefit from the trickle-down effect of this reduction? Additionally, in many instances, we discovered that this reduction hangs in the air. It never reaches the common mwananchi. If you ask Kenyans since the reduction of VAT whether their price for their basic commodities have been lowered, you find that they have not and in some instances they are even higher. The Government is losing revenue and at the same time there is no commensurate reduction in the cost of living that Kenyans are looking for. Our Committee considered these amendments. We have approved them. We will make amendments as necessary and I want to call on Members of this House to let us take the path that is not necessarily populist to ensure that the Government has sufficient revenue for service. One of the biggest debates we had with the National Treasury when they came to us was where the NG-CDF is and whether they could make sure that Members of this Parliament have the money before January. That has to happen only when revenue is collected and some of these development needs serviced. With those many remarks Hon. Deputy Speaker, I beg to support and I call upon the Leader of the Majority to second. I beg to move and move. I beg to move!"
}