 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this very important bill, a tax amendment to facilitate small contractors. And of course, Mr. Speaker, this is a very important initiative supported by this parliament, this government, to bring relief to small contractors. And of course, for most of us sitting here, we would be aware of what small contractors, what they go through. In fact, I've heard of so many approaches to making payments to small contractors because of the fact that we have a 10% from the Treasury that is slashed on any contractor who has a matter before the Treasury, the person pays 10%. And of course, it's expected that the individual would, going through the process of filing their returns would recover. Whereas with small contractors, some of them we know are not in the financial system. Some of our small contractors, they only work at a seasonal time in the year and they hardly ever surface again. And that has been unfair, not just the 10%. But you also have retention under certain causes of contract where a contractor has a contract, for example, of $8,000. You take 10%, which is $800. That contractor now must pay a retention amount of 5% or 10%. Obviously, 5% is $360. And the person is expected to use $6,840 to pay for materials, to pay laborers. And in most cases, they do not measure, but they actually subsidizing government activities. That's what happens. And that has been going on for a long time. And the nature of our people is such that they apathy with the system, they do not trust that the government system works for them. There's very little advocacy for someone to speak on their behalf. The ministry of finance, I guess, is sometimes the professionals, once they collect the revenue and they do their part, that's their concern with it. But the small individuals are one suffering dividend. They suffer a lot. The larger contractors with the $1.0 million contract who are able to claim for exemption, they get the exemption certificate. But if you're a small contractor and you're not in the financial system, you cannot afford or qualify for an exemption certificate. So the 10% and you subsidizing government stays in the treasury, stays in the system, and it is to your disadvantage. So the idea of bringing this relief to small contractors is very important. And sometime I ask if somebody's going to cut grass or do a small cleaning of drain, why a retention? What are you retaining money for to see if the grass cut properly? And even when retention of the larger contractors are done, you see no administration of the retention. But small contractors, like we come up with rules and we just apply it across the board to everyone without looking at where there's supposed to be some exception to the rules. So for example, and I'm happy that the PS for economic affairs is paying attention. There's an HRDC built in Odessa. And the contractor roll over the drain, collapse the drain. The road has been damaged and there's no tension. The retention supposed to be used to ask the contractor to make good those the infrastructure before he's paid everything. But you do not find that. But there's a principle of taking retention. Good contract administration, but bad practice in administering the contract. But our smaller contractors would do not have that risk associated with the performing the contract. The same is applied. Mr. Speaker, I think the issue of the $10,000 and less is important, not just for works contractors or service contractors, but the other persons who provide some kind of service other than construction and of course have to suffer the same fate. We do not pay attention who they must pay or who is expected to benefit from that $10,000 of the small contracts. But the 10% is taken and they expected sometimes to pay fewer pay their their their mortgage on their on their their with eater at courts. They expected to to the young man they have pay I'm working with them to pay the individual and sometimes you could have bickering in the background and they come to the power and they and they say you understand. But then the the goodness of poor struggling people makes for us sometimes they say you know, the ordinary solutions. Leave that alone. Whereas the system is not working for them. And I think the our professionals within the financial agencies of government must pay attention to to the intention of laws that 10% on contracts was never meant to be placed for all persons who provide services to government. I recall very early on some projects in government as a quantity severe telling the Treasury this 10% is hurting the performance of contractors. I remember saying this. But we have allowed it to remain. And now we apply to people cutting grass. Somebody digging a drain for $400 with we asked to take 10% from it. And what has happened to avoid that now we come up with an idea called pay master. Because some department do not want to process the payments and have so many deductions. We intend to agreement with someone who has no business in in providing the service to pay the individual small amounts. And that is another action that I considered to be dangerous. It is not a good practice to come up with a pay master to pay individuals who have no who did not render service. So that through that person, other persons could get paid. So Mr. Speaker, again, this government. And a lot has been said and I listened to to what is being projected in in in social on social media, in the news, misleading our people, not speaking the truth. And I asked myself, you know, to what extent we are destroying our people by speaking lies and not representing what is truthful. The intention of this government is to advance the best for our people, especially vulnerable population. And I heard someone said this morning that so much this government has done in this short space of time that they cannot even outline it because there's too many. Every opportunity to provide for ordinary solutions. This government has moved. In fact, we have an agenda that we're going to make it as best as it as we can for ordinary solutions. And this time we have moved to small contractors, $10,000 and less. And we will continue to investigate what more can be done for ordinary solutions, small businesses to have an opportunity to survive in this part of solution. So I really want to thank the prime minister and the cabinet of ministers and all of us who saw it necessary to contribute for ordinary solutions in that regard. And I asked solutions to take the this initiative and not to stay away from the system of government. But start filing your returns, start developing your construction business. If you're cutting grass, take it serious. You understand, start putting structures in place so that your business can grow. You can get better. You can move from being a $10,000 contractor to a 20, move from 20 to 50 grow. Because this government is interested in your welfare, is interested in your small business, and we want to support you. And that is why you are not going to be paying that treasure will not be slashing your amount by 10%. But we will ensure that you better you are able to pay, price your job well, pay your workers well, pay for your inputs as we move together to create a stronger industry, not just for the construction sector, but the other sectors that continue to serve our people. During the carnival, you would have seen our artists performing. Even during elections, I see how quickly the artists produce songs overnight you as if it were coming from a bakery, hot bread, you know, they come to you on the stage, they say, I'm drug him when you're buying my salad, you know about them as far as you want. And by the time they speak to you, you know, you can hear something other platter there or something coming out. Our artists and our people in the struggles can produce in so many different ways and we want to be able to support them and let them grow. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.