Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 237280,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/237280/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Oparanya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 201,
        "legal_name": "Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya",
        "slug": "wycliffe-oparanya"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I take this opportunity to thank the Minister for having come up with quite good proposals which will ensure that we have adequate revenue to run the economy of this country. I would like to thank the Minister for having favoured the agricultural sector. He has come up with measures that will promote the agricultural sector by allowing farm work to increase from 33.5 per cent to 50 per cent. This means that people in the agricultural business are likely to write off their capital investment in two years instead of three years. The Minister has also zero-rated VAT on tractor tyres, semi-trailers and also on transportation of raw materials. However, the zero-rating of VAT on transportation of raw materials has not helped the farmer because the Minister increased fuel levy by Kshs3.20. That has had a negative effect. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank the Minister for having considered our request, as one of the hon. Members of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, to remove the Sugar Development Levy (SDL). He had proposed that farmers should incur that cost. He has now decided that it be levied on consumers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from the sugar growing zones. We have been requesting that taxes within that industry be reduced. The sugar industry supports about 6 million people. Unfortunately, the Minister has not considered zero-rating VAT in the sugar industry. In order for the sugar industry to be competitive, it is important we remove many of these taxes. The sugar industry, for example, has various taxes such as the VAT, which is at 16 per cent, the cess, which goes to the local authorities, at one per cent, the SDL at seven per cent, the Corporation Tax at 30 per cent, the Withholding Tax at 10 per cent, the Fuel Levy and the Customs and Excise Duty. How can we be competitive, especially now that the COMESA safeguard measures are ending in February, 2008? It is my humble request that, in future, the Minister will consider removing these taxes in this industry all together. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing that I would like the Minister to consider is the Capital Gains Tax. This tax was suspended in 1985. However, the Minister intends to re-introduce it. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}