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{
    "id": 1056496,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1056496/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 188,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I thank the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee for the time they have spent on this BPS and indeed the processing thereof. I know it has taken them time going into the nights. They articulated most of the issues. I do not want to spend a lot of time because the specifics have actually been very well articulated. Allow me to just correct some misconceptions I have heard on this debt. Yes, it is true the debt has gone up and will continue going up so long as we are not able to cover all the expenditure we want through our taxes. You can only finance through the amount you get from the taxpayer or have to borrow, so long as the need is there. We committed ourselves to free education. We are spending 27 per cent of our Budget on education. Now, where are you going to get the money to pay the teachers if people are not paying taxes? When we say we are using part of debt to finance recurrent expenditure, how are you going to pay teachers? How are you going to pay doctors? We committed ourselves through the Constitution 2010, to some basic rights that had to be provided under Article 43, yet we complain that we are borrowing to finance recurrent expenditure, when it is us who committed ourselves to provide those services. We have to defend the country. Come rain or shine, defence will have to be there. If there is no money, especially like now, our economy shrank by 5.5 per cent in the second quarter of last year and the collection of revenue went down, debt becomes inevitable. When we have commitments, pension to pay; Parliament to run; Judiciary to run and all those things, debt becomes inevitable. 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."
}