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{
    "id": 1202428,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1202428/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 32,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I am particularly happy that several of our colleagues have been appointed to the Executive: Hon. Aden Duale, Hon. Alice Wahome and Hon. Aisha Jumwa, as well as all the other politicians that will now be serving the Executive. As I congratulate them, I hope that they will not forget where they came from. I hope they do not forget the troubles they had in reaching CSs for them to answer Questions or lobby for projects in their constituencies. We, therefore, hope that when we go to knock on the doors of these people who will be in the Executive, they will listen to us as they would have loved to be listened to when they served as MPs. Hon. Speaker, the President promised us that fertilisers will be accessible to wananchi . True to his word, these fertilizers are available in stores across the country. This was a great departure from the economics of subsidising consumption at the expense of subsidising production. What we saw in the previous Government is that subsidising consumption led to expenditures that could not be accounted for, and we did not succeed even when we tried to lower those prices. This is because research has shown that if you really want to subsidise the cost of a product, the easiest and most rational way is to subsidise its production rather than its consumption. I note that the President, in his Address, stated that we are overtaxing consumption at the expense of taxing wealth. For a very long time, we have had the assumption that if you increase the tax rates, you will then collect more revenue. However, scientific research such as what we call in economics the Laffer Curve has shown that you will increase the tax rate up to a particular point, where a further increase in that tax rate will lead to collection of less taxes. I am, therefore, hoping that as the 13th Parliament looks forward to debating the Finance Bill, we will not have the proverbial increase of tax rates hoping that we will collect more revenue. I hope that we will have a tax system that is sensitive to the hard-economic times that we are in, noting that increasing tax rates will not necessarily lead to an increase in tax collection. The President in his Address talked about housing as one of his key agendas. In addition to providing thousands of jobs for our young people, this will also lead to a decent way of living for our people. In Molo Constituency, which is quite rural, we have a big slum called Kasarani. We have families living together in a single room. You have a father, mother and adult children sharing the same tiny wooden room. I am, therefore, hoping that when this project kicks off, Molo will be one of the first beneficiaries and we will provide decent housing for our people. 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."
}