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{
    "id": 419293,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/419293/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 336,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. G.W. Omondi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1169,
        "legal_name": "George Washinton Mallan Omondi",
        "slug": "george-washinton-mallan-omondi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. From the outset, I want to say that the original tax law was passed with a lot of emotions and ignored several taxation principles. One of the driving factors at the time of passing the original VAT Bill was the projected Kshs10 billion revenue that was expected to come from it. The other one was that it originated from the Executive. So, from that point of view the majority in this House fell over each other to support the Bill. I would say that we failed, as a House and representatives of the people. We did not take into account what hon. Mbadi is now bringing; he has taken into account what is expected of a good tax regime, namely clarity, simplicity, ease of administration and fairness. We did not take these things into account. We did not even look at the inefficiencies that the VAT Bill that was passed in this House was introducing into the economy. Since people are making noise, we are trying to correct that. I would want to support this Bill because now we are, at least, listening to what the local population is saying out there. I am scared that if we do not reason well in this House, and consider the effect that our decisions have on the people, we are going to have the county governments doing their own things out there. If revenue collection becomes the driving factor for tax policy, you can imagine, as hon. Limo said, what is going to happen in the counties. They are going to tax everything and this is not going to be fair to the people. It is important that when we come to this House, we avoid doing a double job; something that should have been done earlier if we maintained cool minds and consulted--- I want to support the amendments that have been brought by hon. Mbadi because they now address the original failures that took place in this House. I support this because we are now listening to what the people out there are saying."
}