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{
    "id": 1079741,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1079741/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "motivate by putting a higher number that you require to employ for you to meet the threshold. To me, I thought the Committee should reconsider retaining the number at ten. I almost called you Madam Speaker, and I do not know why. Forgive me for that. Hon. Speaker, on the issue of bread, I agree totally and we must insist that bread must be zero-rated. I know many Members or Kenyans out there who have low finance background may wonder what the difference between zero-rating and exemption is. If a commodity is zero-rated, it means that the input tax is also claimable. Right now, we are talking about bread. If bread is zero- rated, it means that if the wheat that went into making the bread was taxed, the person selling the bread will claim back the amount of tax that was paid on the wheat. If it is exempt, it means he will not charge tax on the bread but any tax that was paid preceding the manufacture of the bread will not be claimed. That tax will form part of the cost of the bread. When comparing exemption to zero-rating, zero-rating is better than exemption because it makes the cost of the bread cheaper. Let us not think that bread is now exempted. It is being moved from zero-rating to exemption which disadvantages the consumer because the final bearer of the cost will be the consumer. I agree completely that we must retain bread in the zero-rated bracket. With regard to the powers of Parliament, we must just say no. I do not understand how the Cabinet Secretary (CS) can ask Parliament to surrender the power we have in setting the VAT rate to the National Treasury. It cannot happen. That cannot be the spirit of Article 210 of the Constitution that allowed this House to legislate on the taxes and fees paid. This is mischievous because for the CS of the National treasury to ask this, it means that he has realised that this Parliament is not a joke. Convincing us to vary the VAT rates is not easy. By the way, there is no taxation without representation. You cannot ask Parliament to surrender power to charge VAT or vary VAT rates. Bring those rates to Parliament for approval. Right now, what would have happened with the bread is that the CS would have just decided to put VAT on bread and we would have had no recourse or capacity to reject that. You can now see that this House is even considering moving bread from zero-rated goods to exempted goods. It will hurt Kenyans if we make a mistake of allowing the CS to have absolute powers in setting the VAT rates. Varying, changing or imposing VAT rates should be the exclusive mandate and responsibility of the people’s representatives. That is why the people of Kenya brought us here to sit in this House and legislate on matters that concern them. There is nothing that concerns Kenyans more than taxation. Taxation is the most important thing that Kenyans would want us to participate in. As I conclude, I also agree that the betting industry had some issues. There is discrimination. When you listen to radio stations, and I am sure it cuts across all languages, there is a lot of betting going on. You hear them announcing that if you pay Kshs100 or Kshs200, after every two hours you will earn Kshs100, 000 or Kshs500, 000. All that must be brought into the tax bracket so that there is uniformity. Finally, on issues of accounting documents, I still want to persuade the Committee to reconsider rejecting the proposal by the Ministry to move it to seven years. We need to keep our records for a sufficient amount of time. Even if another Government comes into place, the more reason why we should keep documents. This is so that if anyone is in office, does bad things and thinks that once they leave nobody will follow them, they must know that the documents that they started dealing with from their first day in office will land in someone’s hands immediately they leave office. People must be accountable. It would be better if we could even insist on keeping records for 10 years, so that people keep records. If there was misappropriation, embezzlement of 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."
}