Gov't to borrow Ksh.700 billion to help fund Ksh.3.6 trillion budget

The government may have to borrow Ksh.700 billion to plug the 2023-2024 budget deficit.

This is contained in this year's budget policy statement that shows an expenditure plan of up to Ksh.3.6 trillion.

The statement was on Wednesday presented on the floor of the National Assembly by the Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair Ndindi Nyoro.

In the report, Parliament has put a ceiling of Ksh.2.3 trillion for the national government and allocated the Executive and its departments Ksh.2.1 trillion.

To finance the budget, the government is targeting revenues of up to Ksh.2.56 trillion.

At a time the President William Ruto administration has been calling for reduced debt appetite, the expenditure plan may not allow.

“We will be forced to borrow up to Ksh.700 billion...we want to borrow 70 per cent of that locally,” said Nyoro, who is also the Kiharu MP.

In the previous financial years, domestic borrowing has been on the rise as compared to external borrowing.

Currently, the two categories are at an almost 50-50 basis of the public debt of an estimated Ksh.9 trillion.

In a bid to move away from the external borrowing, the government seeks to broaden its tax net to collect more and seal the loopholes.

From the plan tabled before the House, Parliament will get Ksh.40 billion while the Judiciary will bag Ksh.22.9 billion, if the estimates translate to the final draft budget.

This is an increment from last year's allocation of Ksh.19 billion, and in keeping with President Ruto's promise to allocate the Judiciary Ksh.3 billion more.

Despite the Supreme Court declaring the CDF law of 2013 unconstitutional, MPs have allocated the CDF kitty Ksh.53 billion, with each constituency set to get an additional Ksh.30 million in the next budget.

Woman Representatives have also been allocated Ksh.1 billion under the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF).

County governments have been allocated Ksh.385 billion despite their calls to have more money channelled to the devolved units.

The Council of Governors have maintained that they will not take anything less than Ksh.425 billion as the equitable share.