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{
    "id": 72924,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/72924/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 430,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 198,
        "legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
        "slug": "chrysanthus-okemo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I do not think that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has given sufficient background to the problem and what we are really trying to address. This problem is as old as the year 2007. The main problem in this case is not the question of revenue or not. We are trying to address the issue of taxation on an equitable basis so that everybody receives equality of treatment. If you look at what has happened in the past, you will find that in 2007 when there were no physical characteristics but there was retail selling price as the unit for classification, there was an attempt to revise taxes and the four categories that are there were still there only that the classification is different. An attempt was made by Treasury to revise the rates of excise tax and we were very surprised. This is because the increases that were suggested for Class A were from Kshs500 to Kshs700 and Class B – from Kshs800 to Kshs1,200 which was 50 per cent increase. For Class C, they increased from Kshs1,200 to Kshs1,500 which was a 30 per cent increase. On Class D, which is the most expensive classification, they increased it from Kshs2,000 to Kshs2,500 which was a 40 per cent increase. We wondered why one specific class had a 50 per cent increase than all the others. So, we came to only one conclusion which was discriminatory. There cannot be any other explanation. So, we went ahead and convinced the Treasury, as a Committee in the 9th Parliament. These were the revised rates of increased Excise Tax. They increased from Kshs500 to Kshs700; from Kshs800 to Kshs1,000; from Kshs1,200 to Kshs1,500 and from Kshs2,000 to Kshs2,500. Here we saw some equality of treatment. If you look at those increases, you will find that they were fair and equitable and every classification was treated equally. After that we agreed with the Treasury that they go and implement the increases and in the process they went and sneaked in something called the physical characteristic called “cigarette length”. They sneaked it in because we realized after we had passed it here and after we had trusted them. When you talk about physical"
}