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{
    "id": 1043636,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1043636/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 268,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Navakholo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2543,
        "legal_name": "Emmanuel Wangwe",
        "slug": "emmanuel-wangwe"
    },
    "content": "the woods on the Coronavirus menace. Therefore, whatever we do must be looked into in terms of posterity and what informed the Head of State and Government to reduce taxes through the interventions that have been sent to this House. We have matured in terms of playing around with the gains that were intended to be achieved with the reduction of taxation. I got this Bill about 10 days ago. I reviewed it to understand the parameters that inform what goes to the common man in the sugar industry. When a farmer produces sugar-cane, a quarter of the gains are paid to him and 75 per cent of the gains go to factories. The cost of labour, machine production and sales production is catered for by the factories. Therefore, the benefit that was supposed to accrue to the common man cannot be passed on to him. Instead, it stays with the manufacturers. I support the Bill because the gains that would have been obtained normally can still be realised if we revert back to 16 per cent. There was no realisable gain transferred directly to the individual citizens of this country. As a result of the reduction from 16 per cent to 14 per cent, the Government to date has made a deviation in summation of Kshs78 billion. I wish to give the realisable figures in Corporation Tax, Income Tax, VAT, Excise Duty and Import Duty. I did my summation. As a result of the reduction from 16 per cent to 14 per cent of VAT, what has not been realised is Kshs46.3 billion. That is good money. As Members have said in this House, let us set our priorities right. Members have itemised their priorities and they have a right in the Constitution to vary them in the Supplementary Budget. The gain that we intend to collect of Kshs46.3 billion – which we have lost since July – can be redeemed in the next five to six months. The Income Tax for the few months was supposed to be Kshs27 billion; Excise Duty, Kshs12 billion and Import Duty, Kshs4 billion. If those are adjusted upwards, what the doctors have claimed that they do not have can be provided. As Hon. Member Nominee 001 has said, the cry of Dr. Nyikal can be considered here. At least, we can direct the money to a useful cause like the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontline workers like doctors and nurses are the people who are suffering. What those workers will bargain for – should they negotiate their agreements properly – and come out with in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), can be taken care of. My take is that we have the pandemic with us, but it is the duty of the Government to collect and direct the realisable resources to the correct uses."
}