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{
    "id": 1171803,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1171803/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1382,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ikolomani, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Benard Shinali",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1598,
        "legal_name": "Benard Masaka Shinali",
        "slug": "benard-masaka-shinali"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice on the KRA (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The KRA has a huge task of collecting revenue and making sure that the Government is running. We have to collect revenue that will be used for development and recurrent expenditure for the country. The KRA has improved a lot, because it has been a while since we hit our revenue collection targets. It has improved for the past two financial years. It has proved to us that it is important to facilitate them by giving them more resources and making them work better. I support that the KRA Act be amended and give it a friendly title for Kenyans to be relaxed when they are paying their taxes. We will also make sure that the Executive executes their mandate so that we can get services. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I will go to the Bill. We are giving the Board authority to delegate duties to the Commissioner-General, so that he can allocate duties to officers and departments that he feels will perform them in a better way and generate or collect more revenue for our country. Finally, on the appointment of officers in different departments, the Bill also gives the Commissioner-General the authority to determine their payment in terms of salaries and working conditions. As I conclude, we have seen revenue collection going up every year. I just want to urge the Kenya Revenue Authority to double their efforts in collecting revenue. They need to use modern ways of engaging the taxpayers, ensure they update their skills and are not slapping bills to the taxpayers who are not supposed to be slapped with such bills. I urge the KRA that now that this House is debating how to name them, the approach when collecting revenue should be friendly to the taxpayer, so that he/she can appreciate and recognise why they have to pay taxes. In addition, they should invest more in training and cooperation with the taxpayer, so that it is easy to collect taxes and meet their intended revenue targets. With that, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support."
}