National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Mr Henry Rotich last week delivered the budget statement to the National Assembly, focusing on securing the country from emerging security threats and also creating an enabling environment for growth of business and job creation.
Mr Rotich said the Ksh2,234 trillion budget is geared towards building momentum on economic gains made so far and creating a conducive environment that can spur growth to the targeted seven per cent mark, as well as tapping more foreign direct investment flows and creating more jobs for the youth.
With the government expenditure growing every year, Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) tax revenue targets will always go up considering that the Government will rely on the same to finance at least 70 percent of the expenditure.
To achieve the targeted 7 per cent economic growth this year, KRA is expected to collect taxes amounting to Ksh1.36 trillion to finance the budget up from Ksh1.18 trillion in the 2014/15 financial year.
The budget can fetch national carrier Kenya Airways 70 new dreamliners at a cost of $230 million (Ksh31.3 billion) each.
And if money was used to build the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) – which is being constructed from Mombasa to Kigali, covering 3, 230km at the cost of Ksh327 billion –Kenya would have seven such railway lines.
The funds would also be enough to complete two new Konza City projects at a cost of $14.5 billion (Ksh1.4 trillion) each. The project has been billed as a key driver of the Kenya Vision 2030 economic blueprint.
At a cost of Ksh30 billion each, the money would also construct 73 roads similar to the Thika Superhighway. If someone were to save Ksh1 million per month, it would take them one million months or 183, 333 years to accumulate the budget’s equivalent.
Also, if the money was stacked in Ksh1,000 bills, it would go up 2.64 kilometres high.
If the Ksh2.234 trillion was divided equally among the 44 million Kenyans, each person would take home at least Ksh50, 000. (Mediamax)
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