HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1485436,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1485436/?format=api",
"text_counter": 300,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nairobi City County, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I heard Hon. Ruweida talk about tax exemption on dates, especially during Ramadhan. If a donor is willing to give something to a civil society organisation rather than the Government directly for free, like medical equipment, and then the CSO donates it to the Government, there has to be criteria. We need to review and put in place legislation, policies or regulations on how and what should be tax-exempt. At the end of the day, if we do not have a framework, then we have unfair trade practices. Why was this company given tax exemption? How many other companies are allowed tax exemptions denying the Government money? Maybe they are being allowed tax exemptions, and they save billions of shillings. We need to love our country. We need to understand that if we fail to negotiate good deals for the benefit of the country but negotiate good deals for our pockets, karma is karma. It is going to come back and harm and haunt you. Somebody out there will lack services, whether education, medical, good infrastructure or food security. So, many things are going to be lacking because money is not sufficient. We have to love our country. When anybody operates in this country, whether Kenyan or not, what is in the country's best interest? That should be the question. I hope the Committee would have asked the Auditor-General to provide a report. I gather that secret deals are being done. I want to understand why it is a secret. If you are giving tax exemptions, it means you are denying the country tax. That means you affect every citizen in this country. If you are giving tax exemptions, it cannot be a secret. If it is a secret, that means there is something wrong. We will fail if Kenyans sitting in high offices do not negotiate good deals for the country. That means you are affecting every citizen in this country. If you are giving a tax exemption, it should not be a secret. If it is a secret, that means there is something wrong. I also want to say that if we, as Kenyans sitting in high offices, do not negotiate good deals for our own country, we will fail. Let me speak about the Adani Group. The Adani Group is coming into this country to do many deals, whether in energy, airports, et cetera . If we, the people sitting in the offices, do not negotiate very good contracts and terms, we would have failed Kenyans. At the end of the day, we might have Adani succeeding in one country but failing in Kenya because we, as Kenyans, allowed ourselves to short-change our own country. We need to understand that if we do not love our country, protect our resources, and negotiate the best deals for this country, we will fail. It is true that we do not want to have borrowings. It is also true that the interest of one trillion shillings is not working in favour of this country. We cannot give tax exemptions that are not of maximum benefit to the country. If it were a maximum benefit to the country, the Committee would have seen the value of tax exemption, such as creating 10,000 jobs. The value of the jobs created and PAYE received makes up for the tax exemption. However, they did not see any benefit to the country besides one company getting massive tax exemptions under a lot of secrecy. The Auditor-General should look into this. If things are done secretly, we should have a law that says no tax exemption is a secret. Of course, I understand that when it comes to matters of security, there could be secrets because it is about national security. However, for matters of industry, this is an unfair tax practice. That is why it was picked up by Hon. Wanjiku. There must have been people in his constituency who questioned why this company was treated fairly while others were treated unfairly. Why is the market not equal for all of us? This will deny us investors. There will be investors who want to come into the country but will not come once they learn the reason why the prices of a particular company are so low, while other companies are unable to break even or are closing shop because they have special favours from the Government. Sometimes, we shoot ourselves in the foot because we give a tax exemption to one investor. However, all the other companies that want to come in cannot come in because there is no level playing field. I commend the Committee, but I would like us to see the gaps that allow the National Treasury to come up and give exemptions and how many other companies have been tax 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."
}