NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11 – The Azimio La Umoja Coalition has castigated the government for apportioning blame on the previous regimes over the current economic crisis urging them to offer solutions or exit from office.
National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi questioned why the economic situation has continued to deteriorate despite the removal of subsidies and increase in taxes.
“Where is the money saved from subsidies and those raised from taxes going? How can we save and raise taxes, only to get poorer?” Wandayi posed.
The Minority Leader raised alarm that the situation could worsen in the coming days as the Kenya Revenue Authority has failed in meeting their revenue collection targets which is relied upon to finance several sectors.
In the financial year ending in June this year the taxman had a revenue target of Sh2.1 trillion but according to the opposition they have managed to collect Sh1.2 trillion facing a deficit of Sh900 billion.
“If you say you have met your revenue targets, then where is the money? Why haven’t you paid salaries to the workers?” Wandayi questioned.
He dismissed the declaration by the revenue collector body that they have met their targets and they anticipate a surplus in revenue collection by June, this year.
“And if it’s true that KRA has collected the money and remitted, then treasury must tell us where the money is? Why is it that just a few months after the regime of Kenya Kwanza, things are going south,” Wandayi said.
The Chair of the Council of Economic advisors David Ndii had blamed the current cash crunch on matured Chinese loans explaining that the government prioritized debt repayment first.
The Opposition Coalition has however rubbished the explanation saying it’s a mere excuse calling on the government to offer Kenyans solutions instead of offering conflicting statements.
“Ndii has blamed the problem on matured Chinese loans.How Chinese loans stopped KRA from meeting its revenue targets,only Ndii knows,” Wandayi stated.
On his Twitter account, Ndii alluded that multiple loans are maturing in their billions, yet revenue is not growing in tandem.
He attributed the tax target misses to businesses not reporting profit growth, thus shrinking tax growth.
“Debt service is consuming 60 per cent plus of revenue. Liquidity crunches come with territory,” he tweeted.
This comes even as the government admitted to be broke as the state had yet to pay public servants their March salaries.
The devolved units are yet to receive their equitable share for the months of January, February and March due to the cash crunch.
As of March 2023,the National Treasury had released a partly Sh141 billion out of Sh370 billion for the financial year 2022-2023.
