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{
    "id": 1061326,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1061326/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 59,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nambale, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Sakwa Bunyasi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "collect all that we are due to collect but I want to go one step back and ask whether really we have to get to this level of taxation to achieve the same benefit. The pride in bigger and bigger budgets has to be tempered with a realistic assessment of whether those budgets are indeed needed or not. It is common knowledge that nowadays we frequently fall short of our revenue collection targets. One of the reasons may be inefficiencies, which digitization may minimize and improve. The other reason is simply because we match our realizable revenue collection with expenditure levels that we cannot afford. So, we end up with revenue shortfalls, leading to amendments of our budgets through supplementary budgets. Sometimes, we do so several times towards the end of the financial year. That is because our projections on expenditure and revenue did not fall in line. We have lately seen uproar about our taxation levels. For the first time in the history of this country, people were thinking of tax rebellion as it were. We passed it but Kenyans were not happy about it. It is time we begun to focus on the quality of the expenditure packages that come through the budgets. We should be aware that, at the end of the day, it is “Wanjiku” who is going to pay. It is not the billionaires who suffer. Billionaires will always find ways of raising additional funds. However, the low income earners are devastated. So, I applaud the digitization to ensure we minimize wastage. Let us now begin to focus on the quality of expenditure and the impact of such tax obligations on low income households."
}