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{
    "id": 664309,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/664309/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wangwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2543,
        "legal_name": "Emmanuel Wangwe",
        "slug": "emmanuel-wangwe"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Allow me to appreciate my very good neighbour at home and colleague, Hon. Wafula Wamunyinyi, for the very good Bill he has proposed to the House. At the outset, I support the Bill. Many would have proposed to have exemption and zero-rating, but zero-rating might not be the proper route. I support exemption because zero-rating the VAT on transportation will encourage administrative costs in managing returns. Therefore, I support the exemption of VAT on transportation of sugarcane. Mumias Sugar Company is billing farmers Kshs1,000 per tonne on transportation of sugarcane. If this Bill is passed, farmers in my constituency will save Kshs138 per tonne. That is a good saving to the farmer at home. The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury proposed that Sugar Development Levy shall be exempted. We will make something reasonable to go into the pocket of the farmer. We have always asked to move in that direction. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to support this Bill. We should have exemption of tax because our farmers are poor. There has been a gap among the farmers, transporters and the millers. I have not witnessed any shop in this country, and any other part of the world, where sugar is bought on credit. Most of the time, it is bought on a cash basis. However, our farmers are paid six months, four months and two months after they have already supplied the sugarcane. Therefore, millers have taken advantage of our farmers to an extent that farmers see no need of continuing to supply or produce sugarcane. Therefore, this is an incentive that has come at the very much needed time. This is the time we need to support the farmers. The Government assisted Mumias Sugar Company with Kshs2.16 billion. However, farmers are not supplying sugarcane to the miller. Therefore, this is the time to entice the farmers to make sure that sugarcane production makes a lot of commercial sense so that we encourage our farmers to move on. The parity among the three parties – the farmer, the transporter and the miller – can only be streamlined when the farmer is supported. There is devolution of agriculture. Most of our counties have brought in farm inputs and machinery. Our farmers get farm inputs more cheaply rather than getting on credit from the millers. There is realisation of the devolution part of our Constitution. Therefore, we must do what we need to do as the national Government. We must allow the exemption of tax and contain the importation of sugar. We should not amend the production, and then open up the marketing part of it. Therefore, we must protect the whole chain. We should not say we are protecting the millers at the top and defending the farmers at the bottom, and then leave a window. Therefore, this Bill comes in handy. We should make sure that it is passed. With those remarks, I support."
}