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"speaker_name": "Mr. Michuki",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Administration and National Security",
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"legal_name": "John Njoroge Michuki",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I am glad for your intervention because with all these years in this Parliament, I think patience is a virtue. I might dare say that patience is a gift because some people do not have it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all I am trying to say is this: Supposing this Committee is formed, there is a likelihood that it will be breathing on the necks of the analysts and questioning the research that is being done in order to see whether the taxation proposals by the Government are correct or not. This is, especially, with regard to Excise Duty on these cheap goods that come in from various countries. What guarantee do you have that even if you pass that tax measure, Mr. Michuki and others, due to your exposure of what is essentially a very serious matter, will have imported those goods and flooded this market? It takes only 60 days to move goods from any part of the world to Kenya. They will come here with your taxation and you will end up with nothing because, as they say, you will have let the cat out the bag. May 15, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1333 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, when you say that you will analyse the fiscal proposals of Government, what kind of Government are you looking for? Is this the Government that was being discussed at the World Social Forum in Kasarani, which invades other people's properties and appropriates? So, we must be clear on what we are going to pass here. If this is the kind of thing that we are going to pass, it is going to ruin this country. This is because you cannot disclose your taxation measures. No country has ever survived on disclosure of its own fiscal taxation. You might give direction and say, for instance, the intention of this Government, as a matter of policy, is that we shall abolish direct taxation because it impinges on people who try to make a living out of whatever they do. So, when you impose your taxation measures, you only state your general policy, for example, you can say that there will be indirect taxation; and we shall double the taxation on Tusker. Those who want to take Tusker will pay the tax, but those who do not want to pay the taxes will not take the Tusker . That is a general policy. However, you cannot discuss, in July, when the financial year begins, that come June, the following year, you will impose a tax of Kshs10 for every bottle of Tusker . That way, you risk ruining your only taxation policy! Indeed, what kind of taxation will you have put in place? Those who want to store their beer, they will have bought and stored it for quite a number of years until they leave you bankrupt as a Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, therefore, let us not play around with words simply because they sound good. Let us not play with words because we are bitter about the way the Budget in this country is being run. Even the word \"Budget\" itself, we need to understand exactly what we are talking about. \"This Act may be cited as the Fiscal Management Act, 2007 and shall come into operation not later than 90 days from the day of enactment.\" My comment is that if the Act is going to be into effect, it should then control taxation but not expenditure. So, anything that is talking about expenditure, even the impounding, which we have heard here, will be illegal according to this heading. If you withhold, then you are withholding expenditure which is not covered by the heading of this Bill. The definition of the Budget means the process by which estimates of Government revenue and expenditure, assets and they include physical priority setting. I do not quite understand; \"physical priority setting.\" These are words which, in terms of taxation, or law must be clear. The sense of any taxation is that, it is clearly stated. It should be so clear that nobody can avoid it by using other definitions. Here in this Bill, I find that this is a new definition of a Budget. Simply put, a Budget is a financial statement; a statement of revenue and expenditure. This statement is presented to this House every year. May be the promoter of this Bill is not aware that the Budget is not complete until the financial statement has been tabled here. In fact, at the point at which the Minister tables the financial statement, he at the same time, gives notice that, that financial statement should be taken as a notice of a Motion to be placed before the committee of ways and means."
}