The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National planning chaired by Molo MP, Hon. Francis Kimani Kuria this morning conducted public hearings on the Statutes Miscellaneous (Amendments) Bill, 2023, and the Equalization Fund Bill, 2023 sponsored by Tiaty MP, William Kamket.

During the hearings, the Committee received submissions from a number of stakeholder- institutions among them Pricewaterhousecoopers Limited (PWC), office of the Controller of Budget, The National Treasury and The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA),

The PWC who made their submission through Job Kabochi who is a tax partner with PWC, highlighted the importance of zero-rating the export services. He also noted that Kenya remains an important economic partner in East Africa and the larger African region and beyond owing to it's strategic location hence a hub of multinationals looking to invest in Africa and that the services exported to other regions are not confined to BPO. 

On their part, the National treasury recommended for the rejection of the Equalization Fund Bill 2022 and requested the Committee to refer it back to the sponsor for further and wider scrutiny by stakeholders before re-submission to the house.

On his part, Hon. Kimani Kuria challenged the institutions to avoid addressing the matter through litigation because the outcome might affect either party. Instead, he rooted for continuous engagement to ensure that the tax policies passed are sensitive to the continuity of the business, implementable and there is sufficient public participation.

Hon. Kuria also noted that there's no need to propose legislation instituting a myriad of taxes and instead proposed that they all be incorporated in the Finance Bill.