Saw this which am quoting verbertim as the author requested......
The VAT Act, 2013: As a TAX Law practitioner, I must tell the complaining middle class and pretenders to middle class that the VAT Act, 2013 is the most fair piece of legislation in tax and fiscal policy in the whole of East Africa.
Exempting and zero rating products which are processed and used by the middle class/wage earners means that the very poor subsidize their lifestyle because the input VAT which is claimed back and paid to manufacturers and traders of these commodities is paid by all Kenyans irrespective of whether they bought or consumed those products.
If you have ZERO knowledge on how the INPUT-OUTPUT system works in VAT and other Consumption and Trade Taxes is is goo to read the law, the rationale for its enactment or to just shut up.
70% of the citizens in Kenya live in rural areas and do not buy processed goods and food; why should they bear the tax burden of subsidizing the lifestyle of the middle class and wage earners, why??? 400 products were exempted before the new law, now only 40 are exempted. Have you even bothered to know what is exempted before complaining?
The ignorance being displayed by idiotic media persons who are supposed to be "learned" or is it "educated"? is really shocking. VAT exemption and zero-rating allows traders who manufacture and/or sell goods subject to this tax to claim back their inputs.......and this has given rise to many fraudsters in the economy who "manufacture" and "sell" such goods and claim back the inputs from taxpayers.......think people, read, even Wikipedia and understand VAT before acting like people who never saw a classroom.
In developed and emerging economies there is no exemption or zero-rating....read the VAT law in BRICS country....subsidizing the life of the middle class/wage earners is the very ant-thesis of economic growth. Enough said, quote me.
"..I am because we are. "― Ubuntu, Umtu,