Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1569870,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569870/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 82,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "On the issue of Pay As You Earn (PAYE), this financial year, when we were preparing the Finance Bill, we even did some simulation on how to reduce the PAYE. What stopped us from implementing it in this Finance Bill - and I think we are going to consider it in the next Finance Bill alongside the reduction of Corporate Tax from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, we considered reducing to 28 per cent - was the failure by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to meet its revenue targets. We thought that as we carry along with the reforms at the KRA, we should not be doing too many things at the same time. Let us see what the reforms at the KRA, in terms of automation and making it efficient, is yielding to us, then we can move to the next step of reducing the tax rates to increase disposable income. However, it is an idea that I support, Sen. Sifuna. That also goes to the heart of fuel levy or the road maintenance fuel levy. On distribution of development across the country, yes, Senator, it is true that over the years since Independence, we have not been very fair and objective as a country in terms of distributing our budgetary allocations to regions. This is what has brought the tension that we have in the country where people believe that for you to get development, then your people should be the ones to be in power. Devolution was meant to cure this, but at the same time, it has not been fully cured. We are trying. It is not something that you are going to do in a day, to try as much as possible to be equitable in the distribution of resources. This budget that we have produced has not fixed it, but addresses it to some extent. Take, for example, and I have given this example, since Independence, the children living along Tana River have been eaten by crocodiles as they cross River Tana going to school. One bridge costs just Kshs100 million yet you find many of us have tarmac roads up to our homes. It is not fair. Many of us have piped water in our houses, even in the rural areas yet those children in Tana River, for just Kshs100 million, have been eaten by crocodiles. We cannot live in such a country of inequitable resource distribution. Dadaab Constituency, for example, is going to see the first tarmac road."
}