Budget Committee seeks to raise budget by Ksh.50 billion

The National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) has proposed ammendments to the 2020/21 expenditure estimates that will see a cumulative Ksh.49.6 billion rise in this year’s budget.

According to data from its vote on the estimates presented to the floor of the house on Thursday, gross spending by the national government is expected to increase by Ksh.78 billion, a figure that later shrinks by Ksh.28.4 billion after the exclusion of appropriations to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).

The Committee has proposed a Ksh.75.4 billion increase in spending by the Executive while further raising the share to Parliament by Ksh.2.6 billion to Ksh.37.8 billion.

Spending by the Presidency has registered the biggest adjustment that sees the total budget grow by Ksh.30.1 billion following the inclusion of the NMS under the docket.

Other Ministries and State Departments (MDAs) set to see a rise in spending include the National Treasury by Ksh.20.8 billion, Tourism by Ksh.3.9 billion and Infrastructure by Ksh.3 billion.

Meanwhile, some dockets are set to see a slash on their budgets including the Ministry of Health which sees its allocation fall by Ksh.2.3 billion to Ksh.111.7 billion.

The State Department of Interior and Citizen Services is meanwhile set to lose Ksh.2.6 billion from its original allocation while Transport and ICT will see cuts of Ksh.1.5 billion and Ksh.1.4 billion respectively.

The overall impact of the ammendments is expected to alter total spending negligibly as it lifts total spending inclusive of debt redemption under the Consolidated Fund services to Ksh.3.1 trillion from a flat Ksh.3 trillion.

Total spending less redemptions (total expenditure + net lending) meanwhile lifts slightly to Ksh.2.8 trillion from Ksh.2.7 trillion.

The estimates are expected to take centre stage on the floor of the house next Tuesday ahead of the presentation of the budget statement by National Treasury Cabinet Treasury Ukur Yatani on Thursday.

Financing the budget will partly come from internal revenue mobilisation including Ksh.1.62 trillion in expected ordinary revenues, Ksh.249.1 billion as ministerial appropriations in aid (A-i-A) and Ksh.36.1 billion as grants.

The Ksh.823.2 billion shortfall is expected to be largely financed by domestic borrowing at Ksh.486.2 billion while project loans and semi-concessional support is estimated at Ksh.241.6 billion and Ksh.124.1 billion respectively.

Programme and other concessional loans are expected to raise a further Ksh.152 billion including a potential development program operations (DPO) backing from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Total allocations to the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) meanwhile stands at Ksh.927.6 billion including Ksh.441.6 billion and Ksh.286.6 billion as debt redemptions and interest payments.

Counties are meanwhile set to receive a total disbursement of Ksh.369.9 billion including Ksh.316.5 billion as sharable revenue from the national government and Ksh.30.2 billion as conditional grants.