Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo on Thursday, June 13, defended the government's decision to impose the motor vehicle levy on vehicle owners.
Kiptoo while speaking during an interview on Citizen TV noted that faulted Kenyans of misinterpreting the motor vehicle levy.
The PS instead, urged Kenyans to propose other favourable motor vehicle tax alternatives if they want the levy removed.
He further clarified that the government didn't need to enforce the motor vehicle tax against the wishes of Kenyans.
He noted that the mandate to revoke the tax was not with the treasury but with the National Assembly which is set to deliberate on the Finance bill.
According to him, Kenyans with motor vehicle tax alternatives should make their proposals through their legislators.
“We are saying as the National Treasury that if there are better options that come from the public, we will go with that. So we don't need to insist on that,” the CS noted.
“We are not saying Treasury will withdraw the tax, but if parliament wants to find a better way then it is fine, parliament is independent.”
The PS further stated that the move to impose the motor vehicle tax was aimed at raising adequate revenues to stabilise the country's economy.
According to him, the country was grappling with a huge debt of up to Ksh11 trillion and it was time for Kenya to adjust its revenue-raising measures.
"This government is taking decisive action to make some bold decisions. The issue of focusing more on taxes and making sure we raise our own is to drive the point home that we need to be reliant on ourselves," Kiptoo stated.
"You are hyping this thing of taxing taxing and you are not bringing out the issue that there is a problem when it comes to debt. We have a debt position of 11.3 trillion."
