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{
    "id": 1347068,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1347068/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 586,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okello",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you for the opportunity and on the same breath delve into this Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2023 on National Tax Policy. This Government puts the horse before the cart or vice versa. What ought to have happened in the early days of this administration was to bring this sessional paper with very good recommendations on expanding the tax bracket. What we witnessed with our courts a few days ago on the Housing Levy, that talked about discrimination and only targeting the salaried people, could have been cured if this Sessional Paper was brought in good time. Therefore, we have caught ourselves in this situation at a time when the whole country – let me borrow from the words of my sister Hon. Catherine Omanyo – is bleeding. I tend to believe that certain times when people occupy positions of authority, they block their ears to anything else, but sycophancy. When Kenyans talk about the burden on their shoulders, in terms of taxation, then something needs to happen. This Sessional Paper, if properly midwifed, can give a remedy to the few who are in the tax bracket now and have to contend with servicing all the expenses of our country. It becomes very difficult for any Government to target those who are not salaried - people in the informal sector - unless it is charging VAT on the products that they consume. Any other tax targeting those in the informal sector becomes quite a challenge to marshal and put inside the basket. I do not know what can cure the economy of this country because none other than the Deputy President, Hon. Rigathi Gachagua, who was here for one term, came out openly and said they have lost track of this country; they do not know how to fix the economy, and anyone who has an idea should come forth and they will listen, without providing a platform upon which all those proposals will be channelled to."
}