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{
    "id": 685285,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/685285/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Dawood",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2572,
        "legal_name": "Abdul Rahim Dawood",
        "slug": "abdul-rahim-dawood"
    },
    "content": "Excise Duty on kerosene was not well thought out. The CS for the National Treasury raised the price of kerosene thinking that people will stop mixing it with diesel or super petrol. Unfortunately, it has become more expensive for the poor and in a way, it is not helping at all. It is good that VAT on Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) was removed. Unfortunately, by doing this, it will not help people to move from using kerosene to gas. We need to reduce the price of hardware such as cylinders or the Government to issue free gas cylinders to people, so that reliance on kerosene is reduced. If Excise Duty on kerosene remains, then, unfortunately, we will not conserve our forests. We will do the opposite because people will start cutting down trees and cause deforestation. On re-investment of money from oversees, the CS, National Treasury, has tried very much to control this, but I wonder whether we are glorifying corruption. People who have stolen money from this country can re-invest it without being taxed or questioned. If that is not money laundering, I do not know what it is. How can someone bring in money from oversees without being questioned so long as it is invested in Kenya. My Chair is wondering where this is, but it is in the speech by the CS for the National Treasury and the Bill as well. It is going to be mandatory for SACCOs to be put under the CRB. That is a very good thing because many people do not get loans from banks because of high interest rates. They prefer going to SACCOs and microfinance banks and they should give details of defaulters to CRB. If the President signs the Banking (Amendment) Bill by Hon. Jude Njomo, we should think of adding SACCOs and microfinance banks because currently, the law is just dealing with banking institutions. I believe the President will sign that Bill because we need to control banks. The CS for the National Treasury suggested of raising the core capital on banks in the Finance Bill 2015. The Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade thought it was not the right thing to do. The Governor of the Central Bank also said that it was not right because having a few banks will not help the country. We need diversity. But after much thought, we need to raise the core capital as suggested by the CS because we have too many banks and most of them are prone to failure. We do not need four or five banks, but about 20 from the over 43 banks that we have at the moment. We need to also look at the governance of these banks because there is a problem. The National Treasury wants to control how the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) is run. It should leave it alone because CBK needs independence."
}