Raila asks Azimio MPs to oppose Ruto's tax proposals

Azimio La Umoja One Kenya leader Raila Odinga has called on MPs to reject the tax proposals fronted by President William Ruto's government.

Raila said he had directed MPs allied to his coalition to vote against the Finance Bill 2023, saying it is a piece of punishment that Kenyans should be deeply concerned about.

"The tsunami of taxes in that bill will bury everyone, especially the jobless youth and the poor struggling down at the bottom. The Bill is a promissory note to strangle and suffocate the hustlers that Ruto promised to remove the rope from their necks," Raila said on Monday.

The opposition leader said the proposals are a sharp contrast to the promises made by Ruto during the campaigns when he said he would lower the cost of living by reducing taxes.

"It is even more shocking that a regime that rode to office promising to lessen the burden of the so-called hustlers, mama mboga, watu wa mjengo, can turn its back so soon on the people," he said.

Addressing the nation on Monday, Raila said his ODM party is clear from the outset that they will try their best to ensure that "this anti-people budget is not passed by the National Assembly."

"In the event that Kenya Kwanza uses its hired majority and passes the Bill as it is, we want the people of Kenya to understand that it is Kenya Kwanza’s Bill," he added.

"It is Kenya Kwanza budget. It will be Kenya Kwanza strangling them. We will instruct our MPs to have nothing to do with it. The mischief is hidden everywhere across the Bill."

He said Kenya Kwanza is enjoying an 'artificial majority in the two houses' but asked MPs who have the interests of Kenyans at heart to shoot down the Bill.

On the proposed turnover tax that will affect sales worth Sh500, 000 and above at three per cent, Raila said the biggest casualties would be small and medium-sized businesses.

"Those businesses are the heart of the hustler nation. They are struggling. The same businesses are already by counties, bogged down with a number of requirements for permits and licenses," he said.

According to Raila the tax should remain at 1 per cent and should be applicable sales of Sh1 million and above.

On the affordable housing fund in which Ruto wants employees to be deducted 3 per cent of basic salaries, Raila termed the move a unilateral decision that must be opposed.

"How the regime arrived at 3 per cent and not one or two, nobody knows. In an economy where employees are already faced with reduced income due to the high cost of goods, we find the introduction of this new tax irrational," he said.

Saying the move will further reduce the amount of disposable income available to the economy, Raila said they find it curious that while not everyone qualifies for the proposed affordable housing regime, everyone is expected to pay.

"This is illegal borrowing. According to the Bill, those who do not qualify for the affordable houses will have their monies refunded or transferred to beneficiaries, after seven years. There is no mention of interest accrued on the money," he said.

"It is not clear why an employee who does not need a house would have his or her money tied up in a housing scheme when he or she would wish to spend it on farming or just feeding family. There is also no guarantee that the housing scheme will work where schemes like NSSF and NHIF have been crippled by corruption."