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{
"id": 602771,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/602771/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. A.B. Duale",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 15,
"legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
"slug": "aden-duale"
},
"content": "Finally, the Bill proposes procedures on submissions of tax returns and the time required to fill the returns. It proposes how it should it should be filled and when to be returned. It provides for the tax payment on the digital platforms, measures being put in place and whether you do it electronically. All these are provided. There has been a lot of talk that the economy is not doing very well, there is a cash crunch and we are broke. For you to say that the economy is not doing well, you must be an economist of very high standard. For you to say that we are broke, it is not like when you are selling mitumba and then you say that you are broke. That can be understandable. But a Kshs1.2 trillion or Kshs2 trillion Budget approved by this House--- It cannot be said that the resources required for funding that Budget are not available. We get our taxation revenue from three sources, namely the Excise Duty, the Value Added Tax and the Income Tax. If the Commissioner- General was here, he would tell us that our VAT in terms of revenue has surpassed the 18 per cent projected growth. So, we are doing better than what we projected in terms of the growth of revenue from VAT. If you look at the Excise Duty, in the last six months, revenue has also grown by over 28 per cent. Where we have not reached the 18 per cent growth rate, and we are not doing very badly - we are doing about 10 per cent - is on the Income Tax. This is because of a number of reasons. Income Tax is mainly the resource that we get from the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE). In the last two years, there has been a Government freeze on employment; the Government has not been employing. Two, the corporate sector was doing more of outsourcing than employing employees. Finally, the September teachers’ salaries that were not paid affected the KRA, because they could not collect PAYE from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). They did not pay. You can imagine that the PAYE paid by the teachers is a huge. So, on the Income Tax, according to the documents tabled in the House by KRA, the growth rate is not as projected. But we have done very well in the Excise Duty and the VAT. Under the new Constitution, there must be close co-ordination between the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the National Treasury and the Commissioner-General of the KRA. If you look at whether we are over-borrowing, the United States (US) Government, one of the biggest economies in the world, borrows. Your borrowing must be in tandem with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Why do Governments borrow? They borrow for the citizens and the economy to accelerate and create more income, wealth and resources. I am sure Parliament has the obligation to approve the borrowing of the Government, so that it is always in tandem with the GDP of our country; this we have done not once or twice. In conclusion, this is a very important Bill. It is good for investors. It will make Kenya among the first countries in Africa to create a one- stop piece of legislation of all the taxation regimes that we have. If you are in Singapore, for example, and you want to invest in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) that this Government is going to create in Naivasha and the Industrial Park, you will not need to tell your experts to look for the VAT, Income Tax and the Excise Duty laws. The one piece of legislation, namely the Tax Procedures law in Kenya will give that person the opportunity to go round and understand it and make a decision whether Kenya is a favourable destination for business. With those many remarks, I beg to move and ask Hon. Katoo, who is the Whip of the Majority Party, to second."
}