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"content": "(Mr. Ojode): Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I stand to support the Minister with regard to this Motion. However, I will sum it up in a different way. Last time, you heard the Minister say that ICT equipment, including the printer, will be zero-rated. What the Minister did not talk about is what goes with the printer. Toners are very expensive items. A toner is a component within the printer which needs to be zero-rated if at all the Minister wants us to use the printers. There is no way you can zero-rate the printers so that it goes for, say, Kshs1,500 and yet the toner which is being used in the printer goes for, say, Kshs7,000. I would like to request the Minister, who is seated next to me, to go back to his office and come with a proposal to zero-rate the toner. I had said clearly that Members of Parliament are not against paying taxes. We are going to pay taxes, but it is for the Minister to tell us when we will start doing so. Is it today or tomorrow? Perhaps, the effective date of paying taxes will be in the year 2013. We are not saying that we will not pay taxes. This is because we also want our people to know that Parliamentarians are paying taxes. Already the Minister knows that we are paying taxes on the Kshs200,000 we get as salary. 1470 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 26, 2008 Yes, we pay Kshs54,000 and you know that, that amount is deducted from our salaries. So, we do not want this kind of populist politics. As leaders, we have unanimously agreed that we are going to pay taxes. We, as leaders in Kenya, have unanimously agreed to pay taxes. In fact, it is just perception! We should not say that hon. Members are not paying taxes. We are paying taxes! The only tax that the Minister wants to levy on us is the amount of money he is giving us to fuel our vehicles. He should come out clearly and say: \"Yes! My colleagues are paying taxes except on the money for fuel and entertainment.\" I am also saying to my good friend and colleague that, while we are going to pay taxes from our allowances, he should consider reducing petroleum taxes from 46 per cent to, at least, 35 per cent, in order for fuel to become affordable. That is because you know that any increment on fuel, petroleum products or lubricants, will definitely make the fuel prices go high. It is common sense! It is known that, any time you increase taxes on petroleum products, the price of fuel goes up. Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, the other bit is on agricultural implements. The Minister knows that because he is a farmer. The only thing he should have done was to zero-rate anything to do with implements on agriculture in order to boost food production. I am telling you that, if we do not put some measures in place as we are talking now, we are going to have a food shortage. What will happen? How will we feed 33 million Kenyans? So, the Minister should come up with measures that will definitely make food production easier and cheaper for our people. For example, I had suggested earlier that the trailer, which is component that the tractor pulls--- We are paying tax on that. It is not tax free. But the other implements are considered to be tax free. If a tractor was duty free and I know that there is no way you can buy a 70 horse power tractor at Kshs3 million--- If you went to Europe, you will find that brand new tractors are costing only Kshs400,000 or Kshs500,000. They just use them for a year or two and bring them to this side for free. But if you want to buy an engine of a tractor, its costs more than even the tractor itself. Why? Because it is not zero-rated! It is just on paper that the tractor is zero-rated. How about the trailer? Is it zero-rated? There is nothing like that! Let the Minister do his research. Let him go to Cooper Motors Corporation (CMC) and find out whether it is, indeed, zero-rated. It is not! Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, the other issue is on heavy commercial vehicles. In order for you to transport goods, whether commercial or private, from Mombasa to Kisumu, you must have, at least, Kshs100,000 for the weigh-bridge and other levies. It becomes very expensive for even that heavy commercial vehicle. So, I am appealing to the Minister that heavy commercial vehicles which are primarily meant for transportation of goods in order for us to reduce the prices of essential commodities like unga, wheat and rice--- The Minister reduced the tax on wheat. But how many people consume wheat? If I was the Minister in charge of finance, I would have zero- rated all the taxes on maize flour. Why? Because the majority of Kenyans depend on maize flour. So, I want to appeal to the Minister to consider some of these brackets so that, when he comes back, we will definitely pass these taxation measures without any amendments. The way things are, it will be very difficult for us to produce food. It is going to be very expensive. Look at kerosene! My own mother cannot afford kerosene. Your own mother cannot afford kerosene! We are going to deplete our forests or whatever is remaining - if there is any forest cover anyway. As we are talking, there is no forest cover. Hakuna ! Why? Because we are using wood fuel. So, in order for us to boost the planting of trees, we must come up with something. The Minister should zero-rate taxes on kerosene. After kerosene, he should also come up with a master plan to use solar energy. I do not know whether you have been to Japan. In Japan, every building which is being constructed afresh, must have a component of solar energy. It is a must! It is in the Act! When you are constructing a new building, you must have a solar component, so that you can reduce the usage of power. That is the way we should go as Kenyans. June 26, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1471 Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
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