• The government has in its Draft Medium-Term Revenue Strategy proposed to implement a raft of tax review measures aimed at expanding the revenue base.
• These include scrapping tax reliefs, raising Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16 per cent to 18 per cent and reintroducing minimum tax.
Image: FILE
Businessman and 2022 Uasin Gishu governor aspirant Bundotich Buzeki has weighed in on the proposed tax measures the Kenya Kwanza government is mulling introducing besides what's contained in the Finance Act.
The government has in its Draft Medium-Term Revenue Strategy proposed to implement a raft of tax review measures aimed at expanding the revenue base to finance its policies for the 2024-25 and 2026-27 financial periods.
These include scrapping tax reliefs, raising Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16 per cent to 18 per cent and reintroducing minimum tax.
The measures will undoubtedly hit Kenyans even harder at a point where they are still reeling from the aftereffects of the Housing Levy, but Buzeki believes this is just but the beginning of harder times ahead.
"When you think you have hit the ceiling in these hard economic times, the floor you are standing on starts collapsing," he said in a statement on Thursday.
"There is nowhere to run. We thought 16 per cent increase VAT on fuel and 3 per cent housing levy, was rock bottom, but it now appears that the digging has just begun, VAT is set to increase to 18 per cent," he added.
His statement came hours before the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) announced increased fuel prices for the September-October cycle.
The new prices crossed the Sh200 mark for the first time, spelling harder economic times for Kenyans as the cost will have a ripple effect on other basic commodities due to high production costs.
Transport costs are also expected to rise making travelling an expensive venture for most commuters who rely on public service.
President Willian Ruto said after assuming power that he was going to harness revenue locally to drive his agenda and would not take the country to the cliff through more borrowing.
This even as he had promised Kenyans during the campaign period that his aim would be to ease burdens on the ordinary Kenyan, whom he labelled as hustlers, using the Bottom-Up Economic Model.
"I have said that I will not go to borrow, that one I will not do," Ruto said on June 13, pointing out that the country's debt obligation stood at Sh9 trillion.
Buzeki opined that things are going to worsen and the status quo in areas like youth unemployment will continue subsisting in the prevailing period.
"Job creation and the ensuing stories will remain as such. Hakuna Kazi hapa. Umbwa kali!," he said.