Raila shames Mt Kenya leaders complaining over high taxes
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Raila slams a section of Mt Kenya leaders complaining about punitive taxes as contained in the Finance Bill 2023
Raila slams a section of Mt Kenya leaders complaining about punitive taxes as contained in the Finance Bill 2023.
Speaking during the ODM membership recruitment drive in Suba, Homabay County, on Sunday, March 3, Raila said it was hypocritical for Kenya Kwanza MPs to oppose the implementation of a bill they overwhelmingly supported.
This comes after some officials in government have been implying some of the tax provisions in the Finance Bill were misguided.
The lawmakers and ranking officials have been taking stock of the situation on the ground, where Kenyans have been decrying the oppressive tax regimes.
For instance, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua learnt that farmers were totally opposed to the tax on farm produce.
A withholding tax of not more than 5% on farm produce was proposed through the Medium-term Revenue Strategy by the National Treasury.
This would see farmers contribute to the government’s initiative to raise more revenue.
Speaking in Embu on Friday, March 1, the deputy president admitted that the tax proposition would exploit the farmers.
According to him, it was unreasonable to fight for the welfare of the local farmers and at the same time deprive them of their profits through taxes.
“On this tax issue, we saw some mistakes in it…It cannot help the farmer, and on the other hand, exploit them. Our government values farmers and listens to them,” said Rigathi.
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However, Raila recalled instructing opposition lawmakers to reject the bill for being punitive.
“Recently, they brought a finance bill that introduced new taxes, and we gave introductions to our members of ODM to oppose the bill because it was that bill was an oppressive bill, it was introducing excessive taxation of our people, including our farmers because it was introducing a tax called commodities tax meaning they were going to even tax things which are even products of agriculture,” Raila said.
The former prime minister said he was shocked to hear a section of Mt Kenya lawmakers complaining about the Electronic Receipt Tax System (Etims), which seeks to tax farmers, including those involved in avocado farming.
“When they were doing campaigns, they said they would return a guaranteed minimum return. That language has now disappeared. I was shocked to see some members of parliament from the region who voted for the bill rushing to oppose the implementation of the bill.. Shame on them.
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