TREASURY CHIEF JOHN MBADI HINTS AT REVIVING KEY TAX PROPOSALS FROM WITHDRAWN FINANCE BILL
Treasury CS John Mbadi has made an indication that some tax proposals initially contained in the withdrawn Finance Bill 2024 could be re-introduced under the President William Ruto administration.
According to him, though the bill was “dead,” there were clauses like the excise duty on imported sugar that were quite valuable and need to be reconsidered.
In an interview on Citizen TV’s Tonight Show on Thursday, Mbadi, said the government was still treading cautiously in the review of the provisions in the Bill.
“There’s no emergency. We do have in place a legal framework on the collection of our taxes. We must find a way to reintroduce certain progressive elements in the Finance Bill 2024 in a way that promotes growth and tidies up the tax administration.”.
“The process of legislation is on and any new measures may be brought in in phases. We don’t have strict timelines. Legislation is a continuous process. We may not even introduce all these measures in a single bill. Some proposals may be more relevant to trade and industry and can be brought up under those specific sectors,” he added.
He said that he was only defending certain proposals from the Finance Bill, such as the proposal to have the excise duty on imported sugar increased from Ksh.5 to Ksh.7.5 per kg.
“There were provisions in the Finance Bill 2024 that were progressive, for instance, why would one reject an amendment to increase excise duty on imported sugar from Ksh.5 to Ksh.7.5 per kg to protect our sugar industry simply because it was in the Finance Bill 2024? “Those are progressive provisions in the law,” Mbadi argued.
On the repeal of sections of the Finance Bill 2024, Mbadi said that not all provisions are being reconsidered, such as the Eco Levy.
“The Eco Levy is not one of those things we are considering reviving. We are not bringing back the Finance Bill 2024; it is buried and withdrawn,
He also said of the public obsession with the Finance Bill, “Kenyans are obsessed with this omnibus Finance Bill every year. The Finance Bill 2024 failed, and you cannot resuscitate it. It is a dead horse.”
More specifically, he said that some clauses on the bill are targeted at ongoing challenges of tax expenditure and leakage.
He then said that, as such, there was a call that there should be a proper framework around fiscal policy and streamline the bill. “There are provisions in that bill that would have helped the country to grow,” he said, citing tax refund claims that have been problematic.
