Barely a few weeks the country got erupted with protest about the finance bill, the Kenyan Ministry of finance is planning to bring back some of the taxes in the defunct controversial Finance Bill in a new attempt to widen the tax net, raise more revenues and slash the borrowings.
Kenyan lawmakers were forced to drop the bill after weeks of protests which led to the deaths of not less than 61 people.
The taxes that formed part of the Finance Bill 2024 and aimed to raise additional 344 billion shillings ($2.7 billion) in the current fiscal year were scrapped following the youth-led demonstrations.
President William Ruto was equally forced to sack his entire cabinet, including then-Treasury Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u and cut down on the cost of governance.
“Our team is already working on some of those proposals that were in the Finance Bill 2024, which we can now put together and take back to parliament, not as a Finance Bill, but as other proposals,” John Mbadi, the new treasury head, said Monday, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Mbadi said a public consultation will be done in order to avoid a repeat of what brought economic activities in the most advanced east African economy to a halt for weeks.
“We will do extensive public participation because we don’t want to be blamed again, to be accused of introducing things that are insensitive without considering the plight and concerns of Kenyans,” he said.
Be first to comment