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{
    "id": 664237,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/664237/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 26,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Njuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1372,
        "legal_name": "Onesmus Muthomi Njuki",
        "slug": "onesmus-muthomi-njuki"
    },
    "content": "major product. There has been a big fight by the Government to limit and completely stop importation of sugar from Brazil because their sugar is very cheap. Sometimes you wonder whether they produce it on land or in laboratories. The cost of sugar from Brazil is so low because it is a by-product. You can imagine competing with somebody who uses their by- product to compete with a major product. In Brazil, sugar is a by-product of energy and when they produce power from cane, what comes out is imported and consumed here as sugar. It is shipped to where they can find a market normally at a third of the price of the sugar that is produced here. Levying tax on transportation of cane, which is captured in the cost, makes it harder for our cane farmers to sell their produce. On the issue of levying VAT in the cost of transport, the tax collected by transporters is supposed to be remitted back to KRA. What is the efficiency rate of remitting this tax back to KRA because it is not usually done at the source? The transporter who collects the tax from the farmer remits it at the end of the month. The filing system of VAT is that you can claim or offset that against other taxes that have been levied on you. There is need to find out whether all the money that is deducted from the farmers gets to KRA. We may be benefiting middleman and in the process, the farmer and the Government lose. Tax collection may not capture everything collected from the farmers. It might just be a cost put there which does not benefit many people and there is need to reduce this cost. We increased the price of fuel in this year’s Budget which is an additional cost on sugar production. When you go ahead and add another tax on transport that is double taxation. There is need to reduce it. I note with appreciation that in this Bill, there are other products which we can use for comparison. We can draw comparison and show the success of the industry. In this Bill, we have most of the products on which VAT has been removed. They are doing very well."
}