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{
    "id": 421372,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/421372/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 348,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Langat",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 384,
        "legal_name": "Benjamin Kipkirui Langat",
        "slug": "benjamin-langat"
    },
    "content": "Having said that, I want to thank the House. When we passed the VAT Bill last time, which is now an Act of Parliament, I think we adopted a very good spirit that enabled us to pass the Bill. I was in the last Parliament. When the Grand Coalition Government attempted to bring the Bill, it could not pass because it had serious issues. But I want to say that when we came to the 11th Parliament, we were able to negotiate, consult and arrive at a Bill that was eventually passed in this House and assented to by His Excellency the President. It is now an Act of Parliament. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I must admit that after the passage of that Bill, there were a lot of outcries and concerns about the impact of that Bill on our people and the economy. In this country, we must be real to ourselves. We continue having a country where we have our total revenues close to Kshs900 billion or a trillion. We have salaries costing us almost Kshs400 billion. We pay over Kshs200 billion to the counties and around Kshs300 billion goes to service the public debt. If you look at that equation, it clearly tells you that for us to do any development in this country, two things must happen. One, either we borrow more, which will then increase that amount of annual servicing, or two, we tax people more. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I can see hon. Ganya, my friend, wants to interrupt my debate, I am just stating that we must be real and we must---"
}