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{
    "id": 438757,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/438757/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
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    "content": "raising locally and what we might have to borrow from either the domestic or the foreign borrowing. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I tend to think that we need to refocus on our revenue generation and collection measures. We are, in my opinion, not doing enough. About 80 per cent of our people are in the informal sector. We hardly collect much money from that. We have targeted the formal sector to the extent of really almost overtaxing them. That is an area that the Treasury and KRA need to look into. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other area is that Kenyans do not voluntarily comply with tax laws. We have to be pushed by the taxman to pay and that makes it very expensive for KRA to collect revenue. I am urging His Excellency the President and his deputy to become champions in terms of voluntary payment of our taxation. We know what the former President Hon. Kibaki was doing. He hardly missed to ask the people to pay tax. He used to say: “ Tulipe ushuru na tujitegemee” whenever he had functions but this has sort of dwindled and died down during this Jubilee regime. I ask the President to come up and be the person urging Kenyans to pay tax. They will respect you and probably improve on that. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other challenge when it comes to revenue collection is because of the multinationals that we have in the country. They have been using this issue of transfer pricing to steal our money and I have no hesitation is saying that most multinationals in this country steal our money. They have three tiers of companies. One is an associated company that is selling inputs to them in the country and another is buying their products. So, they will sell their input by overstating prices. Say an item that is supposed to cost Kshs1,000 will be sold at Kshs100,000. So, when it comes to selling a product that is fetching Kshs100,000 out there they will sell to their sister company and they will come and say that the company has incurred losses. I would want to urge the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade to delve into this and investigate how much money we are losing. I noted a recent report in the Business Daily to be specific, where we were told that we are losing trillions of shillings through this illegal practice of transfer pricing. It is unfortunate that KRA and the Treasury are paying lip service to this issue. They have not created the necessary infrastructure of legal and even human resource to deal with this issue. I urge the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade to focus on this issue. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other issue is wastage of public resources. We have heard the former Permanent Secretary (PS) of Treasury saying that we were wasting about Kshs300 million then. We have heard the President himself say that ghost workers count over Kshs1.5 billion in terms of salaries. I think it is important that the Treasury, other Government agencies and Ministries deal with this issue. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, finally, I urge this country to look into this issue of saving because we do not have a good saving culture. Even as we speak here, a little increase in terms of money that is supposed to be saved is attracting a lot of opposition. I think this is an area that we need to address and as I conclude, let us pass this Report and try to do it during the next financial year. With those remarks, I support. 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."
}