Moses Kuria, a Gatundu South member of Parliament elected on a jubilee ticket has cited that the government can only generate revenue through taxation.
Kuria said this while undertaking a live interview on one of the Kenyan local TV stations in a segment dubbed Side Bar, where he noted that taxation was the only legitimate way to generate revenue.
“Where else do you expect a government to get money from other than taxation? It is the most legitimate way to raise revenue. Let us not de-legitimise,” Kuria said.
This follows the implementation of the VAT tax on petroleum products that came into effect on 1st September 2018 after lawmakers efforts to suspend it failed.
The tax was however proposed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday last week to be 8% after he rejected the 2018 finance Bill presented to him by legislators to be ascended into law.
This forced National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi to call for a special sitting on Tuesday to discuss the proposed bill after the President presented the proposal with reservations back to the house.
Both opposition and ruling party’s MPs on Tuesday backed up the President’s proposed bill with the opposition vowing to back it up for one year with conditions.
However, Moses Kuria noted that he knew all along we will need to raise a substantial amount of money to support the aggressive development agenda.
He further said that he was happy at where we are as a country, because there’s aggressive discourse on economic issues.
Moreover, Kuria suggested that the nation has not to continue having two separate committees in parliament; one on revenue and another on budget.