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{
    "id": 846640,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/846640/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 167,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity. First and foremost, I want to bring greetings and blessings from the Holy Seat of Vatican. Last week, we led a delegation of Catholic Members of Parliament and we had an opportunity to meet the Holy Father, Pope Francis. He is praying for this country to have peace, development and tranquility. I bring his greetings and blessings. Secondly, I want to congratulate you on the position that you have acquired. Indeed, it is going to put this country on the world record. I want to address the substance of this Bill. The Finance Bill is very critical as far as the success of any country is concerned. It is an element of budget. The budget has two components which are mutually inclusive. First, we talk of expenditure, which was highlighted here by the CS for the National Treasury. It highlights the Big Four Agenda of development: affordable housing, universal healthcare and manufacturing. For us to achieve the Big Four agenda, there is the component of revenue. The key objective of the Finance Bill is to put measures in place on how the Government is going to raise money to be used to spur development and to implement the Big Four Agenda. I will speak only on three critical issues because of time. I have gone through the Report of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade and I want to salute the Committee under the chairmanship of Hon. Limo. Indeed, they did some good work. There are critical issues that I want to highlight. On the issue of the Banking Act and the issue of interest rate capping, I want to salute Hon. Jude Njomo. When he brought an amendment on the Floor of this House, which I seconded, it was to put interest capping in the banking industry because banks were making abnormal profits. Under the law of demand, when the price of a commodity is reduced, obviously the demand is supposed to go up. In this case, the interest rate charged by banks was reduced, the demand was high but the banks did not advance the money to the common mwananchi. This was blackmail that CBK is supposed to have dealt with in its regulation role. When I look at this Bill, I am happy about the issue of the upper limit. We cannot amend the capping of rates. Banks have been making abnormal profits. If you want to spur economic development in this country, it is important that loans must be affordable. In many other countries, interest rates are very low. In this country, interest rates have been very high. We have told the CBK Governor that his work is to regulate and not to legislate. He must be listening to me. I am saying this to the banks because they have colluded; it is a conspiracy. They are not advancing loans to consumers so that they can blackmail legislators to allow market rates. That cannot happen. On the issue of self-regulation, an opportunity was given to the industry but unfortunately the banks never self-regulated themselves. That is why as a House we are saying capping of interest rates has to remain. When it comes to the lower case, it is okay. If somebody wants to put their savings in the bank, they can go and negotiate and agree on the interest rate to be paid. But when it comes to the upper limit, we are going to oppose because we want this policy to spur economic development in this country. My second point is about the Robin Hood tax. In many jurisdictions, this is where the people who are endowed in terms of income are normally taxed so that there is revenue to fund The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}