'Kenya does not need a Finance Bill,' Treasury CS nominee John Mbadi says

National Treasury and Economic Planning Cabinet Secretary nominee John Mbadi has opined that the withdrawal of Finance Bill 2024 should not be a cause for alarm, noting that the government still has options in terms of revenue collection that do not involve re-introducing the entire punitive document that was widely rejected by the public.

Mbadi, speaking on Saturday morning during his vetting by Parliament’s Committee on Appointments, said proposals within the Bill that were not contested can still be brought back to the House for legislation singularly.

According to the CS nominee, some of the said proposals could aid in restoring the country’s economic status and can stand on their own feet, without necessarily being enjoined with the other less popular provisions that were perceived as an overburden by Kenyans.

“The Finance Act 2023 has been declared unconstitutional, although that has been appealed. Still, we don’t have a lacuna. In fact, Finance Bill is an omnibus Amendment Bill, we have about five or six legislations that Finance Bill usually amends; we have Excise Duty, Import Duty, Value Added Tax, Income Tax, Tax Procedures Act, and fees and levies,” he said.

“These are specific legislations. This House, if I’m approved, should help me to bring these legislations directly, touching on these specific statues. We don’t have to have a Finance Bill, but I’ll seek guidance from the Attorney General. But I believe the good provisions which have been lost by this Bill, which are not contentious, and they’re many which can still help grow this country’s economy, we can bring them as specific amendments to those Acts with proper public participation. I think the problem we had was that the public felt there was no proper public participation, which we had, but maybe they felt they were not listened to.”

Mbadi went ahead to cite past instances when Parliament would pass the Finance Bill later on in the year, hence reassuring the public that the recent withdrawal does not mean the country is now at a standstill.

“On the Finance Bill that has been lost, I want to tell Kenyans, please don’t panic. Let us stop making Kenyans panic. In the 10th and 11th Parliament, Finance Bill used to be passed in September. We used to have three months into the financial year to pass the Finance Bill,” he said.

“The minister then was allowed by law through the revenue collection order to allow for some interim taxes to be collected, but the bottom-line is that the law could be in place on September 30th. So there is no cause of alarm.”