President Uhuru Kenyatta will on Friday sign into law the Finance Bill 2018 that introduces 8% Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel and petroleum products, Garissa Township MP Aden Duale has said.
Duale says that the Bill will be presented to the president for assent before he leaves for New York on Friday.
Speaking to journalists moments after the MPs approved the VAT, Duale said that it was necessary for the MPs to appove the president's memorandum.
He said that the government depends on Kenyans taxes to fund its activities and projects.
"There is no other means through which the goverment can get its fundings if not through the taxes," he said.
Duale said that the Finance Bill is friendly contrary to what some MPs have been telling Kenyans.
"It is balanced and Kenyans will not be exposed to hard times as some people are claiming," he said.
The VAT proposals saw MPs divided with majority openly making vows to vote against it.
On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta met with Jubilee MPs and urged them to support the BIll.
Similarly, opposition leader Raila Odinga met with his MPs also asking them to support the VAT proposals.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had proposed 8% VAT from 16% that had come into effect on September 1.
The 8% VAT will take effect once the Bill is signed into law.
Majority of MPs argue that the government is overburdening Kenyans with taxes and that the cost of living is likely to go up following the appoval of the VAT.
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