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{
    "id": 1590434,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590434/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 364,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Tax (VAT), Excise Duty and Income Tax during public participation. We request members of the public to give their own House, the National Assembly, time before reacting to a proposal tabled by the Cabinet Secretary. It is through the procedures of the National Assembly that laws are made. Article 118 of the Constitution of Kenya guides this honourable House to seek the views of Kenyans before legislating on any Bill before it. This is a good example that has onboarded that Article. That is why most of the clauses, such as Clause 28 of the Bill, are important. Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is just two years or less since we passed the law, Finance Act, which zero-rated most of the locally manufactured items needed by Kenyans, especially items like mobile telephones, in response to climate change mitigation. These are steps that this country and others around the world are adopting to address the challenges brought about by climate change. We passed a law to give leeway for these ones. This proposal was made to take out the advantage that had been given to the manufacturing concerns. After listening to members of the public, the Committee decided to protect them and deleted that particular proposal. Another critical issue is data protection as mentioned by the Chairman. While KRA is trying to give justification as to why they are facing challenges, there are enough laws under Section 51 of the Data Protection Act that give limited grounds on which the Commissioner General can operate. Section 6 of the Tax Procedures Act also gives limited powers to the Commissioner General to go beyond some limits to obtain the information needed, especially during assessment or when they are carrying out audit on taxpayers. However, giving a blanket leeway for them to access personal data is a question of insecurity. Most members of the public are worried about it. Therefore, as a Committee, we decided to leave out this particular clause until KRA can prove they have any other limitations beyond what the law has provided."
}