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{
    "id": 662202,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/662202/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 233,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Rotich",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "agents for rental taxation. These measures are meant to encourage landlords to do a full and true declaration of their rental income. The Government is committed to providing an environment that enhances the investment climate and tax compliance. The Government is aware that there are taxpayers who own assets and businesses outside the country and would be willing to reinvest back home provided that there is a conducive environment to facilitate such reinvestments. Consequently, I propose to declare tax amnesty for such taxpayers provided that they submit their returns and accounts for the year of income 2016 between 1st January, 2017 and 31st December, 2017. Taxpayers who take up this amnesty shall have all principal taxes, interests and penalties for the year of income 2016 and the prior year’s automatically remitted in total. In addition, the Government shall not follow up on the sources of such income and assets declared. Hon. Speaker, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been working towards simplifying and reducing the time taken to file tax returns by taxpayers and also enable the Authority to flag out the non-compliant taxpayers to ensure that every person pays his fair share of taxes. In order to make it easier for taxpayers to submit their tax returns in the i -Tax System, I propose to amend the Tax Procedure Act to grant KRA powers to collect information in advance from identified persons for purposes of pre-populating the information in the i -Tax System. Hon. Speaker, Kenya continues to face increasing threats from terrorism, drug trafficking and related cross-border criminal activities. The country also faces the challenge of increased inflow of contraband goods, a practice which undermines genuine trade besides leading to loss of Government revenue. In order to strengthen controls on the import supply chain, I propose to introduce, later in the year, legislation that will streamline the training, licensing and regulation of Kenyan clearing agents, pending agreement at the East African Community (EAC) level of a harmonized approach on the issue. Hon. Speaker, I now turn to cushioning households’ budget to ease the cost of living. In order to encourage the use of energy efficient stoves that support conservation of our environment, I have reduced the import duty on stoves from 25 per cent to 10 per cent. The duty reduction will also align the energy efficient stoves with similar stoves and cookers that use gas, electricity and other fuels that attract import duty at 10 per cent. The use of wood and charcoal by many Kenyans exposes them to premature deaths as well as denying them access to clean, safe and efficient household energy. I propose to amend the Value Added Tax Act in order to exempt liquefied petroleum gas from payment of VAT. This will give Kenyans access to clean, safe and efficient household energy, protect the forest cover and reduce premature deaths. Hon. Speaker, tea and sugarcane farmers in the agricultural sector have been experiencing declines in income due to many factors, including the ad valorem levy on tea and the Sugar Development Levy. In order to improve the earnings of the farmers, I propose to remove these levies."
}