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"id": 974811,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/974811/?format=api",
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"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"
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"content": "we only have two countries and if you look at the top 100, Kenya will come in. This law is going to assist Kenya to achieve the target. In that meeting, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Cabinet Secretary indicated that Kenya’s target this year is to at least be in position 30, so that we can be among the top 30 countries. During our discussion, some of the issues which the CS in charge of this area raised are being addressed by this Bill. That is why I get encouraged when I see the idea of going electronic, that is using electronic signature, affixation of the seal and authenticating documents through electronic means. This is the way to go. While I agree with my Hon. colleagues that there might be some risks associated with this—and this has been mentioned by the Hon. Member who has just spoken, the ICT expert— it is important to note that even as we go electronic, there is need to think about security. I agree with them that the more we go electronic, the more we need to improve our security. As Kenyans, we have reasons to get concerned about security, because we have had cases where people have lost money in banks through electronic fraud. It is important that we support this Bill, so that we cannot get to that level. Just as a way of giving an example, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, one of the things that is making Rwanda do very well is that they have made a policy decision, that if you are either small or micro enterprise and you register a new business, for the first two years you are exempted from paying any trading licence fee. So, you just register and work for two years. It is like giving you time to settle and all that. These are the things which attract business. When you attract business to any economy, there are things that you do to the economy which are very important. First of all, you trigger economic growth. When the economy grows, you are able to create job employment for the youth. At the same time, when you make the business environment encouraging, you get private foreign investments —people coming from other countries to invest—and when they come, other than employment, you also boost your foreign exchange reserves. So, these are some of the things which this country will be benefiting from as a result of this law. It is really important that we support it. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have two areas which I want to make some observations on and as we go to the Third Reading, it is important that we think about them. One, there is this proposal that with this Bill passing, we will be doing away with the requirements for land rates certificates when transferring any land interests. So, when I sell my land to you, we will be doing away with the issue of land rates. I was asking myself: What is the implication of that in terms of those people who do not pay land rates for a long time, and they sell the land to you so that they do not pay the land rates? What happens in terms of collecting revenue which we require to improve this country? That is tied closely to other clauses which are talking - if you read through the Bill - about tax exemption for activities related to the SGR. That has been mentioned a lot. I get concerned when I see that we will be exempting tax for everything which is locally procured or imported relating to the SGR. We have already built the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi and now Naivasha, and I do not know whether we are talking about the next phase of SGR. If that happens, I go back to my earlier question. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have just concluded discussing the BPS. One of the key observations which do not make economic sense is that our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing while our revenue collection is dropping. One of the potential reasons why the revenue collection is declining is tax leakages and unrealistic tax exemptions. If the country does not collect tax because of these many exemptions which we are giving to institutions, then we negate the objective of growing the economy. As we go through the Bill, it would be very 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."
}