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{
    "id": 1252841,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1252841/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Teso South, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mary Emaase",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to the Finance Bill. This is a very important Bill, and I urge Members to debate soberly and objectively devoid of any emotions. Secondly, as we discuss the Finance Bill, we cannot discuss it in isolation. We need to look at the entire equation. Look at the Budget together with the Finance Bill, I am happy that Members agree that we must raise money to finance the Budget. That is what the Finance Bill is all about. It proposes measures to raise money to finance the budget. When I listen to Members say that this Bill does not in any way improve lives or that it should be rejected, I look at them and wonder whether they listened to the discussion on the Budget and where we are proposing to distribute the money to. We must make a decision. It is a hard decision but this is our country in which we live, and we have to make it better. We, therefore, must make a decision. The elephant in the room is that the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee has just enumerated and reminded us about the figures, and what our Budget is. And we know how we have borrowed heavily in the past, and that is what brings us to the state in which we are today. Sixty per cent of our revenue goes towards paying the loans that we owe. Therefore, we can decide to continue with subsidies and have less taxes. You can choose to go that direction, but the question you should ask yourselves is: for how long shall you be able to sustain the subsidies? I hear people saying that when we reduce taxes and we continue to give subsidies, we attract more investments and the country is able to grow. Reducing taxes is just one of the factors, but there are very many other factors of production. You will need to provide accessibility, that is roads, and you may need to provide electricity and many other factors. It is, therefore, not automatic that by reducing taxes, we shall be able to spur growth and improve things. Hon. Speaker, I support this Finance Bill and the position by the Kenya Kwanza Government, that we need to raise more taxes as a country and borrow less so that we are able to allocate money to core sectors of the economy. In fact, the questions we should be asking ourselves are questions on accountability, austerity measures and how we can fight corruption so that together we are able to raise money. That is in our budget we are allocating money to sectors like agriculture to enable us increase production. Ultimately, the forces of demand and supply will help bring down the cost of goods and cost of living. We are putting money to sectors like digitisation and industrialisation to enable us create employment opportunities for our children. The Finance Bill in its entirety is not a bad thing. I support it. I have listened to Members contributing. I was expecting them to say, “I do not like this, this is not for Kenya and this is what I am proposing.” I want to commend Hon. Masara because he is the only one who has said, “this is bad. We probably should not have done a, b and c.” I thank the Committee. It has not been easy. They have tried. In particular, I see that they have listened to Kenyans. They are proposing some reductions. On the 3 per cent National Development Housing Fund, they are reducing it to 1.5 per cent. The only thing I would like to request the Chairman as he replies, is to expound more on the difference between moving from mandatory contribution to a levy. If you look at Clause 36, you will find that they have also proposed to remove the 20 per cent mandatory deposit for those companies or individuals with tax disputes."
}