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{
    "id": 218045,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/218045/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 95,
    "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, in order to encourage more people, again, to own houses, I also propose to amend the Retirement Benefits Act to provide for assignment of the pension benefits as security for accessing housing loans, subject to the development of appropriate regulations to ensure the spirit of pension benefits is not eroded; and also to ensure that not all the pensions benefits amount is used for security of the housing loan. The long and short of this is that somebody will be allowed to use their pension as security to borrow a loan to buy their house that they are going to retire to and enjoy the pension. Mr. Speaker, Sir, to encourage further expansion of commercial buildings in line with increased economic activities, I propose to remove non-residential buildings from the VAT-exempt category and to allow input tax deduction on commercial property development. The flip side of this is that I also propose to impose VAT on rental of non-residential buildings. This measure will not affect - I will need to add here - rental of buildings for residential purposes which will remain exempt. In addition, the small-scale landlords will be left out of the tax since the law will only 1842 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 14, 2007 apply to those landlords fineable for VAT who must be earning in excess of Kshs5 million per annum in rent."
}