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{
    "id": 1451912,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1451912/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "If you can protect me from Hon. KaWanjiku who is conversing in Kikuyu behind me… I was saying Hon. KaWanjiku, for instance, Shiko from Ruaka, who is a small-scale trader, would not have required to have eTIMS to file her returns if her gross income is below a Ksh1 million. All that is lost now with the deletion of all these clauses. We were going to introduce minimum top-up tax to multinationals and not for Kenyan companies. The multinationals were to top up their taxes if they were paying in other jurisdictions a tax rate that is lower than that which is being paid here. For instance, if there is a multinational operating in Kenya and through profit transfers they are paying say, 15 per cent in another country and here the corporate tax rate is at 30 per cent, it was to top up that 15 per cent. That would have meant that those multinationals would have paid more taxes to us and generated more revenue. That, again, is lost. More importantly for me, many Kenyans, especially many business people came to us and said that they are owed hundreds of billions of shillings by county governments and Government ministries. While they are owed by Government, both at the county and national level, the same Government is demanding taxes from them and they are being penalised for taxes that they have not paid. They were getting a tax amnesty for a further period of nine months as the Pending Bills Committee completes its work and money is processed for them to get paid, so that they pay their taxes without paying penalties. This would also have increased our revenues by close to another Ksh30 to Ksh40 billion, besides being a relief to many of our business people. Unfortunately, many of these business people now will have to contend with dealing with KRA because that tax amnesty came to an end on 30 June this year. Therefore, they will not be able to enjoy that tax amnesty that was extended to them in the Finance Bill of 2023 which we sought to extend to next year around March by a further nine months. Lastly, our post-retirement medical schemes were also going to enjoy a saving by increasing or rather, we were to support savings by people who are saving in post-retirement medical schemes, again in an endeavour to encourage Kenyans to save. Today, many of us here, the perfect example would be Members of Parliament, senior public servants and other people in the corporate world who enjoy very lucrative or very rewarding or very good medical cover schemes when they are in employment. However, upon retirement they have no medical cover and end up suffering in destitution because of medical bills. We were increasing the limit from Ksh10,000 to Ksh15,000 of post-retirement schemes. If you save up to 15,000 shillings per month, that is about Ksh180,000 in a post-retirement medical scheme, you are going to enjoy tax rebates. 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."
}