Parliament’s Budget and Appropriations Committee committee has accepted the President’s proposal to halve an unpopular new value-added tax on petroleum products to 8 per cent and the House will vote on the proposal later on Thursday, a senior parliamentary leader said.
The government faced a fuel dealers’ strike, anger among commuters and a lawsuit after transport and fuel prices jumped when the 16 per cent value-added tax on all petroleum products entered into force on September 1.
“They have agreed with the President,” National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale told Reuters on Thursday.
Parliamentary business is driven by committees, which scrutinise proposals and present them to the House for a debate and vote.
Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta said further delaying the tax, which was passed into law in 2013 but never implemented, would compromise the government’s ability to fund planned social welfare and development programmes.
Lawmakers from Uhuru’s Jubilee party have promised to back his proposals when they are put to a vote, but some opposition lawmakers have opposed them.
Jubilee enjoys a comfortable majority in the House.
