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{
    "id": 988244,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/988244/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay Town, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "will still need money to sustain our remuneration. I doubt if, as a nation, there is a ready donor who is going to give us money to sustain the salaries we are earning the way we have been doing. This is why, when we proceeded last week, I also objected to the reduction of VAT from 16 per cent to 14 per cent. We must find a way through which people who can buy something pay what they have been paying or even more, so that we can have revenue to provide for those who do not have anything at all. That is the only way we will have money to protect the health workers we are talking about. Without anticipating debate, I am seeing provisions on PPEs, risk allowance and the need to employ more staff. Where are we getting this money from if we are also proposing that the Government forgo the only reliable sources of revenue - In income Tax and VAT? Saying that people earning Kshs24,000 and below should not pay Income Tax is very sweet and nice. At least, those people are getting something. When you consider it at the level of each individual, it does not mean much. The Committee on Finance and National Planning ought to have told us how much revenue the Government will lose by exempting those earning Kshs24,000 and below from paying Income Tax. And what, therefore, does it prevent us from doing to support the sectors on which our vulnerable people depend? That is the matrix I was waiting to hear from the Committee Chair. You need to tell us if we lower VAT from this rate to this rate, how do we secure that it ensures reduction in the prices of goods? Unless we are talking of an economy where prices are controlled, reduction of VAT in itself does not secure the reduction in the prices of goods. We are in a free economy where demand and supply dictate prices. I am, therefore, saying that we must be circumspect. There is a good reason why this matter…"
}