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{
    "id": 955060,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/955060/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "deforestation. This law is good because it allows more timber to come from outside the country. At the same time, as we implement this Finance Bill, we need to encourage more Kenyans to do afforestation, so that within a few years, we grow our forests to a level where even if we start harvesting our timber, we will not have deforestation problems. So, this is also a good move. There is the issue of export levy on hides and skins. I agree with the Vice-Chair of the Committee. This is an area about which we need to encourage our people. We all know about the places where they want to start big hides and skins factories. If we want to encourage Kenyans to go that direction, we must not tax them. It is going to discourage them. I now want to focus on the issue of betting taxation. As I said, betting tax falls under what we call sin tax. These are things which you can choose to do and you do not die if you do not. You can choose not to do them if you think they are very expensive. I do not know why in this country we have sympathy for these kinds of activities - activities which people can fail to do and not die. It is proposed that we increase it by 10 per cent only. We have been saying this is an area we can tax even up to 35, 40 or 50 per cent. The truth of the matter is that betting is not good for this country. That is the truth. You may give it different names, but that is the truth of the matter. More Kenyans than those who benefit from betting suffer as a result of betting. The few who are benefitting are doing so in a big way. The idea of increasing betting tax by 10 per cent is not fair. This is an area I will want to see the Chair of this Committee propose higher rates, possibly 20 per cent, so that it goes to somewhere near 30 per cent, so that, at the end of the day, we discourage the common mwananchi from engaging in betting. Some people even sell their land to have money to bet. Children are using school fees to bet. When they lose the money, they do not tell their parents about it. So, they start playing hide-and-seek games with their parents. There are recorded cases where students have committed suicide after engaging in this activity. All their money goes and they do not know what to say. So, one decides that the easier way is to kill oneself and forget about it. This is an area from which we can generate more revenue from people who engage in it to fund public good, which will help Kenyans. On the issue of interest capping, my training and work as an economist is to promote what we call competitive markets. When you promote competitive markets, you leave the forces of supply and demand to determine the price. This only happens when the market is competitive. Unfortunately, in this country, there seems to be a conspiracy among the banks. When you start ranking the firms which have huge profits at the end of the year, you will find almost all the banks are in that level. They are at the top 10. What we are saying is that banks are making abnormal profits. Time has come when we should start pushing this market to become more competitive. I see two players here. The first player is the Government. The Government cannot compete with the public in terms of borrowing and then say that the sector can remain competitive. The second thing is the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The CBK is supposed to serve the public good. The CBK is starting to look like they are serving private good. The Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning needs to be hard on the CBK, so that it becomes a public institution which serves the public and the interests of the public. In that case, these people will not make such huge profits. The last point is what we call the public credit guarantee scheme for SMEs. The Government should put as much money as possible in that scheme, so that SMEs can borrow from there and minimise the pressure on interest rates. In that case, we will have low interest rates."
}