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{
    "id": 218025,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/218025/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, on measures to promote equity and enhance access to medicare and education, I have received various representations from Kenyans proposing a reduction in personal income tax. However, given the various projects we intend to finance and the targeted intervention by the Government to reduce poverty, it will not be desirable to address this issue in this Budget. We consider rationalisation of the tax brackets as a priority policy and I have accordingly instructed my officers to conduct comprehensive simulations and propose possible options for consideration in the next fiscal year. In the meantime, our analysis shows that the intervention that I have proposed in this Budget will go a long way in increasing the disposable incomes for the majority of Kenyans, especially in the lower income tax brackets who will not be beneficiaries of a review of the brackets, anyway. These interventions which are intended to reduce the financial burden of Kenyans, include among others, the funding for tuition fee in secondary schools, the increased medical supplies to the health facilities, the support for the orphaned children through the bursaries, the settlement of the landless, the construction of hawkers' markets, the acceleration and expansion of the rehabilitation of the road network and the reforms in the telephone sector to reduce the cost of making calls among others. Mr. Speaker, Sir, to make medical care affordable and accessible to Kenyans, I propose to exempt from import duty medical equipment imported by licensed hospitals. I urge all managers of medical facilities, especially those under the private sector to review downwards their charges accordingly."
}