President William Ruto has finally bowed to pressure from Kenyans forcing critical changes on the proposed Finance bill, 2024.
This happened even as the ‘Occupy parliament movement’ made good its promise and protested in Nairobi, urging Members of Parliament to reject the Finance bill in its entirety.
President Ruto bowed to the pressure that was slowly piling on Tuesday morning in the Kenyans Capital, Nairobi and dropped the proposed 16% levy on bread.
Earlier President Ruto met Kenya Kwanza Parliamentary Group in Nairobi.
Finance and Planning Committee Chairperson Kimani Kuria while addressing the press said the move has been reached following a series of public participation in which Kenyans unanimously called for the scrapping of the levy from the proposed bill.
Kuria said “We have listened to Kenyans and we are all in agreement that there are two things that we must do and one of them is that we need to protect Kenyans from the high cost of living and therefore the proposed 16 percent VAT on bread has been dropped,”
This targeted a range of products including edible oils as well as an eco-levy on all plastic products.
lobby groups and Kenyans staged a protest early Tuesday in the Kenya’s Capital, Nairobi with a planned picketing at Parliament buildings ahead of the tabling of the Bill on the floor of the House on Tuesday 2pm.
The Government also removed 2.5% proposed levy on motor vehicle owners and also dropped the mobile money transfer services.
President Ruto had convened the Parliamentary Group meeting ahead of Finance Bill, 2024 debate in the National Assembly this afternoon.
Finance Committee led by Molo MP Kuria Kimani have hinted that they have proposed amendments into the controversial clauses.
Kimani noted that the Finance and Planning Committee Chairperson proposal to introduce the vehicle levy would make Insurance industry unsustainable and hence slowed down revenues from the government.
“The motor vehicle tax cannot be amended through an Income Tax Act and pegging it on insurance would cripple the insurance business and make it difficult for Kenyans,” said Kuria.
Earlier, the government had retracted the Sh100,000 cap for motor vehicles in a move that would have seen motor vehicle owners pay upward of Sh400,000 in the proposed wealth tax.
The proposal meant that vehicle owners would have been taxed based on the current market value of their vehicles.
Meanwhile the protests in Nairobi ahead of the tabling of the finance bill in the parliament on Tuesday continues, as The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) warns police officers against harassing and arresting protesters.
