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{
    "id": 1085147,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1085147/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "urge and appeal to the National Assembly to bring back those reliefs on Value Added Tax (VAT) by two or probably five per cent and on Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) by five per cent. Those other levies on excise duty including now on airtime need to be considered. This is when we are feeling the effect of COVID-19 pandemic considering that inflation is at a 13 month high at 6.32 per cent. Many Kenyans are suffering due the cost of living. Maybe those sitting here may not realize the effect of those small amounts such as the change in the price of fuel and gas affect people. Those people who are earning less the Kshs500 daily have to decide on what to use that money for. I hope – as Sen. Wetangula has proposed – we can have an ad hoc Committee on COVID-19 pandemic reconstituted with fresh faces because we had a bird’s eye view. There was no other institution in this country that had a bird’s eye view on all the aspects such as the nine areas – economic, social and justice issues and everything that goes hand in hand with the COVID-19 pandemic. Let it not just be that we are talking, but propose specific interventions that are measureable so that we can see what has come out of it after those interventions. Thank you, Sen. Khaniri, for this Statement, but let us now turn it into some action. The easiest thing for us to say and give a resolution as a Senate is to ask for the lowering of those taxes and costs on basic commodities such as gas that people use on a daily basis. Let us have a resolution that can be forwarded to the National Assembly as a Message so that they can review the Finance Act of 2021."
}