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"id": 955067,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/955067/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kajiado North, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Manje",
"speaker": {
"id": 1669,
"legal_name": "Joseph Wathigo Manje",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to contribute to this debate and say, right from the beginning, I support the Finance Bill, 2019, with related amendments that the Committee Chair has proposed. I think it is the right way to raise money. They are targeting virtual trade in the country. You know Kenyans are more enlightened and they are embracing the IT sector, and the description of the market is changing. When we were pursuing Bachelor of Commerce in the earlier days, the description of a market was where people meet and negotiate an item. But currently, they can negotiate through the media and the enterprise takes place. So, I tend to think that is the right way to go in that particular sector. There are three areas that I want to touch this afternoon. Despite the fact that we have to raise money, we have to go to the ground and do some basic research to know how these sectors are being affected. The first one is in Clause 9, where tax on capital gains is being increased from 5 per cent to 12.5 per cent. This will directly affect the housing enterprise and people who are buying land to subdivide and construct houses to sell. This will be anti the agenda that the President wants to achieve in this country because you are increasing the duty at the same time. They should have tried to see what the impact of that increase would be. When you increase from 5 per cent to 12.5 per cent, this is a very big increase. For example, if there is a change of about Kshs1 million and the entrepreneur was paying about Kshs50,000, now he will be required to pay Kshs125,000, which I think will deplete the gains he was to get. That should be checked, otherwise, it will be anti what we are trying to achieve. The next section is where import declaration duty will be increased. Kenyans are highly taxed compared to people in other countries. For example, if you import a small vehicle that is worth Kshs300,000 today, you pay so many taxes like import tax at 25 per cent, Excise Duty at 25 per cent, VAT at 16 per cent and others. You end up paying so much than the cost of the vehicle. For a vehicle worth Kshs300,000, you end up paying between Kshs350,000 and Kshs 400,000. When you include the cost of the person who is clearing the vehicle, another Kshs50,000, the cost will go to Kshs400,000. Imagine the Government is taxing Kenyans about Kshs400,000 more than what the manufacturer himself on the other side gets. There is no cost put on manufacturing, but only on taxation. When taxing, you should check the input you are doing as a Government. That is an area I think should be checked. 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."
}