AZIMIO MAKES HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT AFTER LOSING IN PARLIAMENT.

Members of Parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of the Finance Bill 2023.

This was after an intense debate in Parliament to discuss the bill. The Bill sailed through after 176 MPs voted yes and 81 MPs opposed it.

The total number of MPs who voted is 257. President Ruto for the past two weeks has been pushing for the bill to pass, urging his members to vote in favor of the bill.

The bill, which had been amended by the Finance and National Planning Committee of the National Assembly, faced criticism from the public who considered certain provisions to be harsh. However, some of the proposed levies were revised while others remained unchanged.

One of the key proposals in the bill was the introduction of a housing levy on workers’ salaries, along with increased taxes on fuel and new taxes on beauty products. These measures aimed to generate revenue for President Ruto’s administration to support their inaugural budget of Sh3.59 trillion.

Despite concerns raised, the committee led by Molo MP Kimani Kuria decided to retain the 16 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products, resulting in the same tax level for petrol, kerosene, and diesel.

Several amendments were made to the bill, including the reduction of the proposed 15 percent tax on Digital Content Creators to 5 percent.

In addition, the initial three percent housing levy was revised down to 1.5 percent in the new amendments. However, the proposed VAT rate of 16 percent remained unchanged.

Immediately after the bill was passed, Raila led party ODM took to their social media handles to congratulate the 81 members who voted against the bill. ODM told the members that they fought for the common kenyans despite losing in the votes