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{
    "id": 420269,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/420269/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "as the other Members for the good work that they have carried out this particular year in analyzing the Budget Policy Statement. The last Budget found us as new comers to this House and we did not have sufficient time to look at it. In fact, there was no BPS for us to consider. We just dealt with the Budget and very many mistakes were made which I believe are not going to be repeated this year. It is important that every Member of this House realizes that they have a role of participating in the setting of the ceilings of the various sectors. This is the right time to make your contribution because at some point, or immediately after this, it may not be possible to shift anything vertically. Perhaps, horizontally, but any allocations, it is going to be impossible to shift them vertically. I also want to say that it is a bit sad for me. I am looking at this House and while the direction of this country for the next one year, perhaps even the subsequent years is being determined, very many of our Members are not here. Let us hope that later nobody is going to rise and complain that we should have done this in the Budget, in the BPS yet they are not here to make their contributions today. The other thing that I want to do is to give thanks to our revenue authority. Year after year, they have been giving us about a 20 per cent growth in the revenue collected in this country. I am aware that the Treasury has been setting, perhaps overly high targets, some that may not be realistic. I only urge this House to look at the Budget proposals when they come to ensure that our revenue authority gets proper resources to carry out their job instead of their perennial complaints that they are being underfunded. I also wish to request Kenyans to be a bit patriotic. It is very costly when the taxman has to keep on knocking doors to do accounts of businesses. If most of us voluntarily complied with the tax law, not only would we increase our collection, but also the cost of collection by the KRA would go down. I also request that investors, both local and foreign, should be compliant. Recently, as part of the Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, we went to investigate what is happening at the Karuturi Farm in Naivasha and what is coming out is that a number of investors have been coming to the country, putting in some little cash and then they carry out what is called transfer pricing. This is where you take away all the profits that you are getting. You even pretend that your inputs are costing more and your exports fetching less; such that you cheat the country in the imports that you bring in and you also cheat in the exports that you send out. It is important that, perhaps, we enhance the capacity of tax collectors when it comes to the issue of transfer pricing."
}