National Assembly Finance Committee Chairperson Kimani Kuria denied reports suggesting that he told off manufacturers aggrieved with the current business climate to shift their operations to neighbouring East African countries.
In a post shared on his official platforms, the legislator flagged the information as fake news and urged Kenyans to ignore the post.
The MP's decision to flag the post as fake came after posters quoting him as having advised manufacturers complaining of heavy taxation in Kenya to relocate to either Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and other neighbouring EAC countries and export their goods to Kenya duty-free went viral.
“Especially because we do not operate in a vacuum, you could easily set up in Uganda and export to Kenya duty-free courtesy of EAC,” the reports which have since been flagged as fake read.
The quotes in question were generated from a video, where he was commenting on the Finance Bill, 2024, but his comments were taken out of context and misconstrued.
Kuria while making the clarification stated he was responding to concerns raised by manufacturers who expressed concerns that many of their counterparts had closed shop due to the recent policies put in place by the government.
Manufacturers through their umbrella lobby, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) have warned of massive job cuts over the slew of taxes proposed in the Finance Bill, 2024.
However, in response, Kuria noted that this was the last time such radical changes would be made to Kenya’s business landscape.
According to the MP, the National Tax Policy and the Medium-term Revenue Strategy (MTRS) would set the trajectory of any proposed taxes therefore limiting new legislations in the business environment.
Some of the taxes proposed by the contentious piece of legislation include the ECO Levy which is set to affect the cost of packaging materials.
Another tax proposed which has garnered public uproar is the motor vehicle circulation tax which is expected to be levied on motorists annually depending on the value of their vehicle.
Following the proposed introduction of the new taxes lobby groups have been making their presentations to the government through public participation forums.
