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{
    "id": 1134126,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1134126/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "diminishing returns. The CRA cannot have figures before them stating that the economy has grown by 9 per cent, then they append their signature stating that counties should get what they got last year without taking inflation into account. They have not taken inflation and economic growth into account yet they are telling us that we have registered a growth of 9 per cent. The Senate should stop being a rubber stamp. We should rationalize issues, sit, talk, engage and convince the Government. Governments all over the world always hold on to money. They take your money but they will never give it back to you. It is not unique to Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, finally, the levels of taxation in this country must also be addressed. My Chairperson is one of the Mt. Kenya tycoons and I am sure he suffers from excessive tax payment. This country must reengineer its tax regime. If you earn Kshs100, Kshs30 out of Kshs100 goes to the Pay as you Earn, Kshs16 goes to VAT on everything you buy, then there are taxes on fuel and you pay it whether you own a car or not. Every time you get into a public transport, your money goes towards fuel taxes. In this country, over Kshs69 of what you pay per litre of petrol that you buy goes into tax. How do you explain the fact that the fuel that comes from the Middle East through Mombasa, piped to Eldoret and collected by trucks to Rwanda and Congo is still cheaper there as compared to here? How do you explain the fact that fuel is cheaper in Uganda? The Speaker and I live close to the border and when we have a minute, we can drive across. When you drive to see your relative in Mbale, you will see that a litre of petrol is Kshs10 cheaper than Kenya. How do you explain that? Why should we tax ourselves to death? For the economy to grow, we must loosen our tax hold on Kenyans for them to spend their money to grow the economy. The Government should tax Kenyans less and when they do that, they will get more. They should broaden the tax base, and collect more taxes other than choking the taxpayer. Otherwise, they will end up milking the cow and when the milk is over, they will cut off the udder and after eating the udder, they will eat the cow itself. This is where we are headed. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to second this Motion. The Members should know that this is their final year this term. We fought hard to raise the figure from Kshs316 billion to Kshs370 billion. Our intention was not to have the Kshs370 billion locked in stone. It was supposed to be a growth trajectory and the Members must grow the economy. Nigeria has the biggest economy today in Africa. Their economy is bigger than that of South Africa because of devolution. If devolution works, you will see miracles and if it does not work, we will keep having the problems that we keep having."
}