For a country to function, financing of its development projects must ne done. This is happens through a budget. The Kenyan government together with other East african countries presents is budget on the second Friday of June each year. The 2023/24 budget which is the highly talked in the recent years was read on 15th June 2023. The reason for the talks is its size as its the biggest despite the hard economic times facing the globe and thekenyans in particular.
According to the finance bill which was passed on 14th June 2023 the Kenyan budget goes to a tune of 4.5 Trillion. Of this amount the kenyan taxman is expected to finance 3.68 Trillion and the deficit will be financed through borrowings. The taxman is expected to collect 2.893 Trillion from the different tax means and 7.86 Billion from Appropiation and aid and grants. From the above statistic a great percentage will be financed through taxation. Though this is not a unique thing, the question remains will Kenya Revenue Authority reach the 2.89 Trillion tax amount set by the budget? Will the citizens swallow the huge tax burden set taking into consideration the difficelt times they are facing due to the increasing costs of basic comodities?
Winston S Churchill once contended that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. According to the recent statistics 16% of the Kenyan citizens live below 1.90 US dollars a day which is considred the measure of poverty line. though its expected to reduce to 15% in 2024 and subsequently to 14% in 2025 will this population hold the increase in tax or what will the government do to caution those people below the poverty line? This is a question that the citizens are expectedto get answered by Dr Bills government.