The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party leaders from the North Rift region have defended the government’s high taxation saying it will solve the borrowing question.
The leaders cited that massive borrowing and external debts has pushed the country into an ailing economy.
Led by West Pokot senator Julius Murgor, the leaders who spoke during a thanks giving ceremony on Friday at Emboasis secondary school said that the external debts have led to hard economic times and burdening tax payers.
The leaders have thrown their weight behind the proposed three percent housing fund saying people at the bottom need resources and infrastructure for production, which is why the finance bill should be passed without any amendment.
“The finance bill will provide for the tax that will be used to cater for the needs of people at the bottom,” he said.
This comes as the country’s risk of debt distress worsened from ‘high’ to ‘significant’ after breaching four of the six key debt sustainability indicators.
Murgor said that through an improved revenue collection the country will avert a heavier public debt crisis.
“We may not borrow but we shall build schools and roads. We want to ease the burden of our people from a lot of debts. We should not borrow money for infrastructure to construct roads, railways and hospitals. We want to be independent so that the country can’t collapse. Having many debts is not healthy,” he noted.
He said that it was wrong to borrow and pay salaries as interest goes up.
“The country will be unable to pay the debts. We want to reduce the debts. It is better for salaries to delay and projects to wait a bit so that we can pay debts,” he said.
He pointed out that the United States managed Obama care after its citizens paid high levies.
“Those earning more than 300 dollars and business people were highly taxed. This helped a lot for the poor to manage their health bills,” he said.
He asked parliamentarians to pass the housing Finance tax bill saying the will help poor Kenyans.
“The former regime took debts three times more than what former President Mwai Kibaki used to take. We don’t want Kenya to sink and declare bankruptcy. Let’s embrace the culture of saving for ourselves,” he said.
West Pokot Deputy Governor Robert Komolle said county employees are willing to have the three percent housing levy cut.
“We need the 3 percent housing taxation to come next year when the economy is good,” said Mr Komolle.
He rubbished suggestions that it is another form of tax to burden Kenyans.
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