VAT on pesticides threatens meals protection

True to its supposed objective of rationalizing legal tax guidelines to optimize revenue and reduce materials beneath the 0-rated class, the Act has introduced some reasonable and progressive measures, which include exemption from VAT for transfers of commercial enterprise as a going situation, items furnished for emergency and household items imported by way of passengers arriving in Kenya from overseas destinations.

One provision that stands is the imposition of VAT on agricultural pest management merchandise and requiring the approval of the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary for 0-rating of inputs used inside the manufacture of pest manipulate products.

Being a predominantly agricultural nation, the outcomes of this choice are a long way toaining the problem of meal safety, which is one of the government’s Big 4 agenda. By its very nature, VAT is tax impartial on the delivery chain, and its weight is usually borne utilizing the very last consumer, in this situation, the farmer.

The excessive inputs will push the value of the last produce, forcing the farmer to increase their food expenses to make reasonable margins.

If so, some farmers won’t come up with the money for the charges of those inputs and can choose out of agricultural sports altogether, main too much less acreage beneath meals manufacturing.

Similarly, requiring the approval of the cupboard secretary for zero-rating of inputs introduces some other pointless bottleneck and begs several critical questions.

What standards will the Cabinet Secretary use to determine which producers and products qualify for zero scores? Will producers observe and look forward to the approval all of the time?

You know those meal commercials you see on TV with food and drinks (and, occasionally, heart and ice) flying around in slow motion? You don’t need an extremely high-priced digicam system and rigs to acquire incredible outcomes — all you need is a little creativity.

Here’s a 3-minute video that suggests how one Chinese studio created all sorts of eye-popping shots using low-fi practical outcomes — such things as spinning a wet ear of corn on a power drill and drilling holes in glass bottles to blow beverages out the top.

There may be one type of delicacy in India that dominates tons of the restaurant scene — and it’s now not Indian. For more than a century, Indians have passed nuts for Indian-Chinese cuisine, a lot so that it even outnumbers the Indian spots in some neighborhoods.