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{
    "id": 1441103,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1441103/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak about this Bill. I acknowledge that the Bill has 132 Pages and 65 Clauses. Therefore, rejecting it in totality is just playing to the gallery. I think there are good and bad things in the Bill. There is a clause that is being introduced in this Bill on tax abandonment, which I have not heard much public discussion about. For the first time, we are being asked to make a provision in law for the Commissioner-General, together with the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning, to give tax waivers where, in their view, tax cannot be collected. This is a very fundamental activity that requires the input of this House. Tax that is due is public property and any activity to wave it or claim that it can be abandoned must have the input of this House. I have already recommended certain amendments that will come to the Floor of the House to recast this Clause. We will see that any attempts to abandon tax are subject to the approval of this House as well as the requirements of Articles 201 and 210 of the Constitution of Kenya. There is another provision in this Bill about an investment allowance for spectrum use. I believe that this matter should be looked into in detail because it has a retroactive effect on the tax that will be collected from the telecom companies. Parliament, therefore, needs to do more on this matter to ensure that we do not create a loophole for tax losses on a very large scale. I acknowledge that there are many good initiatives in this Bill, especially on cement and the use of clinker. An impression was being created that the cost of cement would go up, but actually, the Bill is reducing the cost of cement by waving a lot of charges on the clinker. That should go on record. I will be supporting it with amendments."
}