The much awaited 2019/2020 budget will be funded through taxes and debt, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich says.
According to him, Kenyans escaping the tax net will be brought in the bracket with a few amendments to the existing tax laws to close windows for tax cheats. Few additional taxes should also be expected by the citizens.
“We are going to make sure that many people are paying taxes so as to expand the tax base and we will also refine tax laws to address any challenges witnessed in the previous year,” said Mr Rotich.
He further assured Kenyans that the new Budget is going to support local business environment and address local business environment. This however, is the biggest Budget the country is having since independence.
The finance boss added that locals should not be worried about the borrowing as long as the government was not using the borrowed money to fund recurrent expenditure.
The National Treasury is staring at a budget deficit of Sh607.8 billion and wants to close this gap by borrowing Sh324.3 billion from the external markets and Sh289.2 billion from the domestic markets.
{ Read: Ksh3.02 trillion budget presents headache for Rotich }
The national government plans to spend Sh1.7 trillion to run its programmes, pay salaries and generally make sure all operations continue.
Counties will receive Sh371.6 billion, while the Consolidated Fund Services has an allocation of Sh805.8 billion, the bulk of which will pay debts.
Parliament will receive Sh43.6 billion, the Judiciary will get Sh18.9 billion, while Sh5.8 billion will go to the equalisation fund.
