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{
    "id": 377251,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/377251/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 475,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "another long list and fail to achieve the objectives of this Bill. I am so far happy that maize, seed, rice, maize flour, wheat flour, ordinary bread, milk, infant milk, et cetera, have been exempted from VAT although I am sure that the people of Kandara, who I represent, and the people of Ruaraka and other constituencies, do not buy infant milk. They feed their infants with cow milk and goat milk, which is quite nutritious. They add water to it to make it acceptable to infants. In respect of some machinery that has been included in the exemption list, I do not think we should go that way. We need to concentrate on ameliorating the situation of poor Kenyans and shorten the list to the bare minimum. As far as I am concerned, bread, unga, milk and sanitary towels are enough exemptions. The rest of the items should not have been included on the list. Since when did machinery become cheap in Kenya? Who makes machinery in this country? We are not industrialists. Moreover, if we keep on lengthening the list, we will find ourselves with the original 400 items that had been exempted because everybody will propose an item for exemption. I hope that hon. Members are not part of the commercial traders benefiting from this long list of items exempted from VAT. I am not imputing improper motive on hon. Members. What I am saying is that we should debate this Bill with an open and broad mind, bearing in mind the fact that collecting revenue is for the good of the country, and not for the Jubilee Government. Whichever Government comes into office next time will benefit from the revenue that will be collected. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, even as we continue to say that we want to tax each and every item, it is important to remember some of the problems that we have had so far. When we looked at the Budget, we realised that there was a big problem. Even now, there is a big problem in trying to re-align the Budgetary items and getting enough money. Appropriation was a problem. To-date, the national Government has issues with the county governments because the later are asking for more money. We lose Kshs1.5 billion every month. Therefore, let us zero-rate as many items as possible but let us not pretend that doing so will have the effect of reducing the price of maize meal, whose price I would want reduced to Kshs40 per two-kilogramme packet as that of a half-litre packet of milk goes down to less than Kshs20. That would be the happy day that all of us would want to see. I am very sad that this Bill is being debated when many hon. Members, who represent the majority poor, are not here. If we are to decide to pass this Bill now, we would do so without even looking at the list that hon. Members have been complaining about. What I am saying is that our attention should also be---"
}