{"id":1587355,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1587355/?format=json","text_counter":437,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Alego Usonga, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Samuel Atandi","speaker":null,"content":" Hon. Temporary Chairman, I agree. Until Parliament becomes bold enough to intervene on some of these zero-rated products, we are not going to make good progress. As a Budget and Appropriations Committee, one of our recommendations that are geared towards realising our revenue targets is to scrap most of these zero-rated items from the books. As Hon. Kaluma has pointed out, we cannot even know how the public is benefitting from some of the zero-rated products. We fear because of the perception of the public, but in the end, it is the Kenyan taxpayer who suffer. If we cancel even half of these zero-rated items, we are going to save about Ksh400 billion. We are paying Ksh1.1 trillion interest on debt. Look at how much money we will have for development. Going forward, I request the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to tabulate all these zero-rated items and cancel them. We will make good progress."}