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{
    "id": 808360,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/808360/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": "to get this property. We know in this country the process of valuation, especially for stamp duty, is very lengthy. The Stamp Duty Act under section 10(a) provides that only the Chief Government Valuer or his officers who I am told are not more than 44 are allowed to do valuation for stamp duty. We have so many other highly qualified private valuers out there. This section of the law should be amended so that this new provision of exempting first-time house owners from stamp duty can make sense. Otherwise it is going to take long, especially with the expected backlog and it will not be useful at all. This Bill talks about the Big Four Agenda, especially manufacturing and healthcare, but it contradicts when it says that pharmaceuticals are going to pay higher taxes. That means pharmaceutical industries, which provide medicine to healthcare, are going to have higher cost of producing those medicines. So it beats the purpose of talking about the Big Four when the cost of healthcare is going to go up. At the same time, it also beats logic of talking about enhancing manufacturing when you are going to charge them more. On the issue of betting, most Members have talked against betting, but I want to say, as Hon. Moi and another Member said, betting is not bad. It is a consequence of what is happening in our society. So we should not condemn betting wholesomely. We should find ways of dealing with betting problems. The betting problem is not unique to Kenya; it has been there in other countries, but they have managed to deal with it. In the morning, we were talking about having sports academies across the country and we said some of the monies that come from this should be invested in activities or projects to empower the youth, so that even as they bet they are taxed and that money is used to enhance their livelihoods through other activities. There is a tax of 20 per cent on betting winnings, but I think this law needs to be very clear what a winning is. Is a winning the income that you get from the betting or it is the net benefit you get? Because the person who is betting has spent some money before he gets that winning. So we need to have a net figure for betting. So the definition of winning should be reviewed to ensure that whatever losses one got are also captured in the taxation. This law also talks about commercial vehicles but the definition it puts on commercial vehicles contradicts the definition in the Traffic Act. So, this can become a problem as we try to implement this provision."
}