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{
    "id": 1079721,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1079721/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Gladys Wanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "2(b), there are different periods provided for different businesses. If you start a farm or a plantation here, you will have 183 days which is six months for Kenya to be considered as your permanent establishment. It is important because once Kenya is considered your permanent establishment, then you start to pay taxes that accrue to businesses that are established here. You are no longer an expatriate moving and going. The only difference there is for consultancies. Consultancies have been put at 91 days. These are standards like OECD and UN standards. Most consultancies end after 30 to 52 months and it would have ended. So, if we leave them for too long, then we will have people coming in doing consultancies and going. However, the other good thing that has been done here by the National Treasury is, if I, Hon. Shakeel and Hon. Eseli have related companies, if we are going to do consultancies, each person’s 30 days will be added and we will be found to have done 90 days all together. This is so that nobody is escaping the tax rule on the issue of permanent establishment. I am very happy with what has happened with NHIF. The Bill introduces tax relief on individuals who contribute to NHIF to encourage uptake of National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). The amount of insurance to be claimed is equivalent to 15 per cent of the premiums paid with a cap of Ksh5, 000 per month. All the other medical schemes have an amount at which you have a relief. However, NHIF has been excluded from this. Therefore, this is very good; that now those paying NHIF will also qualify for this relief. We now have TIVETS in many of our constituencies. In addition, we are churning out TIVET graduates every year. The Bill proposes to expand applicability of tax rebates to employers who engage apprentices up to 10 for a period of one year. The Committee discussed this and also said 10 might be too high. If you look at a company that can actually take 10 TIVET graduates for a whole year that will be a very large company. Therefore, one of the proposals the committee is making is to reduce this number from 10 to 5 so that more companies can benefit from this tax rebate and this is especially MSMEs. Under the VAT act, the Bill seeks to change the VAT status of exportation of taxable services. However, this means our transporters...Those who presented strongly to us were transporters who transport goods from Kenya to Uganda, DRC, Tanzania and other parts in the region. If you remove them from the zero rates, then they become non-competitive in the region. Someone will just go and establish in Tanzania. Their trucks will come from Tanzania, transport goods here and go back. Therefore, the Committee has made a consideration for this and while the other services have been retained the transportation services have specifically been proposed to be retained as zero-rated. I am glad that National Treasury also does not have a problem with this because immediately we are going to have a shift because this is transport and it is moving; this is mobile. I can easily be headquartered in Uganda and still bring goods here. Therefore, if we do this to our transporters, our transportation sector especially at the coast... Moving goods across will be a problem. Therefore, the Committee has strongly considered that amendment to keep this as zero-rated, that is, transport other than by air or sea. To address our tax expenditures, the committee has agreed with the National Treasury's proposal to change status by removing the items from exemptions. There is a series of items there that you will see in the Bill. We have agreed on most of them. However, we have also agreed with a long series of items that have been added to the list of exemption and these are mostly medical items. Hon. Speaker, the long list in the Bill, if you look at Clause 21, most of them are items that have been added to the list of exemptions and we agree with most of that except that syringes are being removed from the exempt list. However, we do not see the logic of removing syringes. This is because right now we are talking about 100 per cent vaccinations. You cannot vaccinate against 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."
}