Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 421167,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/421167/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 143,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I beg to move that the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, (National Assembly Bill No.37 of 2013) be read a Second time. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, before the recent repeal of the VAT Act, in August, 2013, which became law in September, the same year; there was increased pressure to have a new VAT law in place to reduce the complexity in management and administration of the VAT in this country. This pressure was coming from the business community, economists, accountants, development partners and other stakeholders. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the main concern and reason for this push was to have a tax system with regard to VAT. This is simply to administer and manage, hence resulting into inexpensive tax collection with the ultimate benefit of achieving economy in tax management and administration. The other objective was to avoid possible distortions and leakages in revenue collection, among others. I want to say that pressure and push from various professionals has had this country think of amending the VAT law for quite some time. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, those of us who were in the 10th Parliament and even those of us who had interest in politics then, will remember that the VAT law was actually introduced in the 10th Parliament. It was not debated and because we were approaching elections, it became a little bit politically sensitive. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the 11th Parliament will be praised for passing that law to streamline the VAT management. However, as we do all these, we need to be very concerned with the cost of living of citizens of this country. When we passed this law, it was expected that the Cabinet Secretary of Finance would take advantage of the period allowed between the signing of the Bill into law and the time of actualizing or operationalizing the Act so as to explain the items which were VAT taxable and those one which were not. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it was a pity that the Cabinet Secretary did not take advantage of that, thereby sending wrong signals to the economy with the attendant risk of increasing generally the cost of living in the country. We intended to explain to the people of this country, through the Cabinet Secretary so that we could avoid unscrupulous business people, men and women from taking advantage of this law to exploit the public. It was wrong for the Cabinet Secretary to allow the economy to receive wrong signals with regard to VAT Act. But again, as a House, we must accept The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}