Dear Kenyans, accept to pay VAT and move on

PHOTO | STEPHEN MUDIARI Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich reading the budget on June 13, 2013.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The ‘tyranny of numbers’ notwithstanding, I believe a majority of the law makers had no clue what the real VAT Bill entailed when they passed it.
• I believe this is a plan to frustrate efforts towards achieving gender equality since this is a commodity only used by girls and women.
• We must respect the law and we must pay VAT. I suggest we stop the whining and all and start looking for ways to find shades against the winter rain of VAT.

By Steve Biko
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It seems Kenyans are in a quagmire situation; a situation that has been the topic of discussion this week, on issues lactose and the like.

On one hand, we want development so that we can have better services and better lives, but on the other hand, we complain when we are taxed to fund these developments so that our wants can be met.

The expenses of a government, having for their object the interest of all in terms of development and service delivery, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses. This is the burden that we as Kenyans are having a problem proudly carrying it, as we enjoy the benefits of taxation.

Many things are never sure, are never certain, hence the need to work at them until they come to pass, but when it comes to Kenya and its unique issues, taxation is certain than death and for the first time in this country’s history, the large populace has cried foul because of taxation. The subsidies we enjoyed through zero rating and tax exempt have been taken away, all in the name of funding our country’s development agenda, as we wean ourselves off donor support.

This is all good and I’m 100 per cent behind the President Uhuru’s strategy on how to fund for our developmental projects.

My qualms are with Kenyans and Kenyans alone.

TAX MERITS

Governance is all about give and take. When the bill was up for debate, we were busy tweeting about socialites. We were busy updating on facebook about big brother and other reality shows. We were busy uploading photos on instagram about the ‘awesome’ lunch we just had.

As technocrats at National Treasury planned and plotted on how to ensure that the over 400 items that were exempt or zero rated were back on the VAT target list, we planned and plotted on how to get that ticket for blankets and wine and how not to miss the mingle.

As National Treasury planned to take from us, we never for one moment planned and plotted on what to ask in return. The old VAT Act was a mess and the new one was long overdue but we needed to have a balanced ground, which we never fought for.

We were busy plotting demos against MPigs on their planned salary increase, without the foresight that they will have us for breakfast when the VAT bill came for passing.

We never discussed and debated the merits of taxing milk and how the whole country will be affected. We never held our leaders to task to ensure the President gave us something back in return to see us through this tough moment when basic commodities are going up, by more than 21 per cent.

We never paused for a moment to think of the great value VAT plays in our economy and how we can achieve a balance. Our attention was somewhere else, at the behest of our gadgets.
As an informed lot, we let down the whole country.

We had the opportunity to start a debate that the rural populace would have picked up and at least held the National Treasury to task to give us something in return, but we didn’t. It seemed right to talk about pigs and their relatives.

Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

TYRANY OF NUMBERS

The drafters never thought it through on how it will be funded, not to mention the dreaded ICC issue to confuse our international partners on developmental projects.

Now we are faced with a situation that we must go through the labour pains albeit longer than needed until the economy is stable and a set relief can be implemented.

Of course the truth is that MPs are too busy recovering campaign money they used to convince us with to vote for them in the March 4, 2013 election to read the laws they pass.

The ‘tyranny of numbers’ notwithstanding, I believe a majority of the law makers had no clue what the real VAT Bill entailed when they passed it.

The laws are written by technocrats who can put pretty much any wording they want in there and the greedy MP will pass it into law, as long as the National treasury has something to offer them in return like car loans or mortgages.

Fast forward to today and the hue and cry that we are showcasing reeks of hypocrisy from here to Timbuktu and back.

The tweets and updates we are writing lack the sincerity of a Kenyan truly shocked and boxed into a financial suicidal corner. It’s the fifth day since the enactment of the VAT Act and I can tell you, we will cry a river of crocodile tears because we had a chance to engage and negotiate for better VAT terms but the guys at National Treasury deserve a Pulitzer Prize for having us hook, sinker and line. They have taken everything from us and not given us anything in return.

If milk has made us talk for 4 days just because it’s gone up by Sh10 for every 500ML, wait until other goods and services are truly and totally affected by the VAT Act and retailers increase their prices by more than 16%.

For the longest, we have been talking about the issue of the sanitary pads and the girls in the rural Kenya who cannot afford this essential product and how charity events have been held to try solving an eternal problem. With the VAT Act targeting sanitary pads, imagine just how the talks will be.

I believe this is a plan to frustrate efforts towards achieving gender equality since this is a commodity only used by girls and women. But did we negotiate with the National Treasury on this? Or all we did was complain, with FIDA leading the way.

Menstruation is one of those rarely discussed subjects, obviously because of the stigma surrounding it. It is not a secret that the price of a packet of sanitary pads is still out of reach for many. But NO, we didn’t do what was needed to be done to ensure it stayed zero rated.

Agriculture is the backbone of our country’s economy and key component of our GDP. With the VAT Act targeting farm inputs, expect food insecurity issues, expect dairy farming to be more expensive hence milk will still go up, expect those who were surviving on a meal a day to go without every other day, expect farmers to avoid buying fertilizer and other inputs to save on costs and hence bad harvests and hence no food and hence hunger.

But did we think about this? No. we were busy tweeting and tembeaing Kenya. One is left to wonder, how we shall tweet when basic food stuffs are beyond our reach.

The story is replicated in the music industry with local artists paying VAT to do local shows, with family planning methods being VATABLE and hence more kids born into a country with no plan, no food security and no resources for them. The vicious cycle of poverty just got a powerful catalyst just because we never negotiated for better VAT terms. We got served lunch by the National Treasury, with MPS being the beautiful waitresses.

I am all for paying VAT, but we could have done better to negotiate for better terms. Our silence is our own undoing. It’s the invisible noose around all wallets, choking then 16% every purchase.
Our silence when the VAT Act was a bill is the reason why out cries right now, are hypocritical.

We must respect the law and we must pay VAT. I suggest we stop the whining and all and start looking for ways to find shades against the winter rain of VAT.

In the famous word of Kenyans, we must accept and move on.