Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 245041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kipchumba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 313,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kipchumba Lagat",
        "slug": "joseph-lagat"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Chairman, Sir, my second biggest problem with these taxation measures is the abolition of the road licences for vehicles. I have raised this issue before. That finally led to the increase of the Road Maintenance Fuel Levy by Kshs3.20 per litre. I have seen the argument as given by the Minister and it is not satisfactory. That will raise Kshs5 billion. Out of that amount, each constituency will be given up to Kshs11 million, an additional of another almost 100 per cent. Mr. Chairman Sir, what will happen to the extra Kshs3 billion to be raised by every Kenyan? Everybody who will purchase fuel will pay the additional Kshs3.20 per litre. This taxation will cause a shift from what the Minister intended to achieve, namely to reduce income inequality among Kenyans. Therefore, the removal of the licence fees, which is Kshs3,000 per year, and the increase in fuel price will only increase the tax burden on the common man. My argument here is that the tractors that we use on our farms do consume fuel, whose price has been raised by Kshs3.20 per litre. Our tractors and posho mills will have to pay this additional Kshs3.20 per litre. However, they do not use roads. I wish to suggest that farmers, whose tractors and posho mills do not use roads, be exempted from this additional Kshs3.20 per litre tax. This Kshs3.20 per litre is a lot of money to farmers. I appeal to the Minister to reconsider this matter because it will create inflation. Alternatively, this Kshs3.20 should be levied on petrol only. This is because diesel is mostly used by the common man. It is used by our Matatus, tractors and posho mills. Any extra taxation on diesel should be removed. Those of us who use petrol, especially the rich people and July 4, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1783 Members of Parliament, should pay the extra tax on petrol and thereby meet the loss in revenue that will result from the reduction of the tax on diesel. We should not allow additional taxation on the common man. Increasing fuel price will make life unaffordable by Kenyans. I would like to plead with the Minister to only increase the price of petrol and other related products and exempt diesel from the price increase. This will enable the economy of this country to grow. All constituencies will consume Kshs2.32 billion. The Minister's argument is that this Kshs3 billion will be used to build new roads. In fact, the roads that we have are sufficient and we do not need new roads. They are sufficient because constructing more roads without having money to maintain them is a waste of resources. Let us maintain the roads that we have. If we are unable to maintain the roads that we have, why should we build more? By constructing more roads, we will make life very difficult for ourselves. I have seen that the tax threshold has been increased to Kshs5 million. This is a commendable measure. This means that everybody will be paying a flat rate of Kshs150,000. This will enable the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to reduce administrative costs. We should never shift administrative problems to the common man. Finally, I wish to say that the introduction of deductible tax on charitable expenditure is commendable. But I wish to request the Minister to extend this measure to cover Harambee money contributed by hon. Members every weekend. If this is done, then the argument that Members of Parliament should have their allowances taxed will be reasonable. In fact, our allowances are used to pay Harambee and medical bills for our voters. Treating Harambee contributions as charitable expenditure will help us a lot. I also wish to support the removal of Stamp Duty on land used for development and expansion of schools. But this exemption should be applicable only to expenditure on expansion of schools and not to all development expenditure. This is because exemption on development of new schools can easily be abused. Many people will pretend to be developing schools, but will abandon development of those schools after enjoying a tax exemption. I want to request that we waive Stamp Duty on only land meant for expansion of schools. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}