National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale appeared on a Tuesday night interview on Citizen TV where he discussed the hard-hitting 16 percent fuel levy.
Addressing the reactions of Kenyans after fares were increased with prices of basic commodities also set to rise, Duale stated that they would advise Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to drop implementation of the VAT on petroleum products and find alternative sources of revenue.
He further noted that President Uhuru Kenyatta had the option of returning the bill to parliament for MPs to review.
"After listening to Kenyans, we will advise the CS Treasury to reconsider.
"The President can refer the law back to Parliament," he stated.
Duale also hit out at his colleagues in the August house accusing them of being hypocritical.
He explained that the Jubilee administration first sought to introduce the Value Added Tax (VAT) on all petroleum products in 2013 but its operationalization was suspended by lawmakers twice, for three and two years respectively.
Referring to the amendment sponsored by Minority Leader Junet Mohammed that suspended implementation of the levy until 2020, Duale put MPs on the spot for laziness noting that they had adequate time to review the bill.
"MPs had all the time to amend that law. Last week, MPs went ahead to suspend the law for another 2 years instead of looking at how to rework it," he stated.
The Garissa Township MP proposed that revenue be taken from non-core government functions to finance Uhuru's Big 4 development agenda.
"There are sectors where revenue can be collected from- taking from non-core functions to fund core functions," Duale suggested.
