Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party director of communications Philip Etale has said putting a 16% VAT tax on bread is an insult to Kenyans.
Etale through his official X account on Friday, June 7, 2024, said it would be prudent to impose a tax on bread.
“Tax on bread is an insult to Kenyans. Yes,” Etale posted.
Etale’s sentiments come a day after an opinion poll by Infotrak revealed that a bigger percentage of Kenyans are opposed to the imposition of tax on bread as proposed in Finance Bill 2024.
Poll on 16% VAT
Infotrak in the survey released on Thursday, June 6, 2024, revealed that that 87% of Kenyans said no to the introduction of 16% VAT on bread.
“A significant percentage of respondents were opposed to the 16% VAT tax on bread, with (87%) that said no to the said tax measure. Other areas targeted for taxing that respondents rejected are 16% VAT on financial and insurance services and things like Mpesa transactions,” the report says.
83% of the respondents are opposed to adding a level of protection for environmentally unfriendly products such as batteries, tyres, phones, and ICT equipment.
The North Eastern region had a high percentage of respondents who supported the bill proposal to introduce a 2.5% tax on motor vehicles based on their value, which would go to insurance.
Nine per cent of male respondents support the introduction of the 2. 5% tax on motor vehicles and seven per cent of female respondents support the said tax measure.
“Of the youth (14%) aged (18-26) mentioned that they do support additional levels of environmentally unfriendly products such as phones, batteries and ICT equipment, while (5%) of respondents aged ( 36 45)and those aged (45-55) ( 5%) support the tax measure on environmentally unfriendly products,” Infotrak reported.
Finance bill awareness
The poll also revealed that 54% of Kenyans are conversant with the Finance Bill 2024.
According to the opinion poll conducted between May 23, 2024, and May 29, 2024, a majority of respondents in the central Kenya region (62%) are reported to have been aware of the Finance Bill 2024.
The Infotrak poll says Eastern regions scored the least in terms of awareness of the Bill (41%) but emerged second at (59%) in terms of awareness.
However, the Infotrak poll revealed that 85% of respondents from North Eastern mentioned that the Finance Bill 2024 won’t have any impact on the economy of the country.
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