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{
    "id": 825280,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/825280/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 484,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipkelion East, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Limo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1915,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
        "slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
    },
    "content": "not very conversant with what it is, it introduced the upper cap and the lower cap. The lower means if you have money and you want to deposit into an account, the bank is restricted to give you interest up to a certain level. If you are borrowing money, the cap means the bank has been restricted not to go beyond a certain interest rate. A lot of interest is on the upper cap. That means the lower cap has been attacked seriously. It has been called a lot of names including draconian and all that. Our Committee, having discussed for a long time, proposed that we retain the status quo but we remove the lower cap so that the banks and the customers are left to discuss about the interest rate to be given on the savings. On the loans, we were unable to get real justification. We were also unable to see what the banks have done to build capacity of Kenyans. The reason banks are unable to give Kenyans loans freely is that there is a lot of risks involved but what are the banks doing to build capacity of Kenyans so that they become low risk? Because of that, we were unable to convince ourselves to remove it. Far from the truth, we have not removed the cap; we are proposing to remove the lower cap only. At a later stage, if you look at our Report, there is a proposal to introduce Kenya Banks Reference Rate (KBRR) in lieu of Central Bank Rate (CBR) but we are moving a further amendment to delete that and return to CBR. That means the rate will be based on the CBR not the KBRR. We have confirmed that KBRR was not even effected, it is not operational currently. We are going to move that amendment at the Committee Stage. I finish by appreciating the support we received from the Speaker, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the staff of the National Assembly and the Members of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning who were dedicated. They did a lot. They spent a lot of time discussing this particular Bill. For this country to develop, we need to engage ourselves and talk more on predictability of our tax policy. We need to assure the investors that our country is both predictable and stable. We are not going to convince the investors to come to this country if we are not very stable and predictable. We are also of the view that we must relook at a way of enhancing our tax without necessarily increasing the number of taxes we levy but rather collect tax in small amounts from so many people. I beg to move and invite our Vice-Chair, Hon. Waihenya Ndirangu, to second."
}