Treasury CS Mbadi hints at reinstating clauses of rejected Finance Bill 2024

While taking over office from exiting Njuguna Ndung'u on Monday, Mbadi said that there is a need to uphold a sturdy tax expenditure system that will help foster development in the nation.

Mbadi noted that some of the clauses in the contentious Bill sought to tame the deeply-rooted expenditure debacle the nation has been experiencing.

"There are provisions in that Bill which would have helped the country to grow," he said.

"One area is the issue of tax expenditure which is leading to tax leakage. A lot of the tax refund claims are fictitious and we know it, they've been around for a while."

The newly assigned Treasury boss recommended that one of the avenues that will reduce tax expenditures will be moving basic commodities, which directly affect the cost of living, from zero-rated status to exempt tax.

"You can move them to exemptions so that we do away with these zero-rating of commodities which end up clogging our system," he said.

"Kenyans must accept that we will give some relief on some critical and important items but let us do tax exemption instead of zero rating which end up benefitting business people and not consumers."

Mbadi vowed to ensure that the exchequer hones some of the progressive clauses included in the scrapped Bill to deal with the nation's fiscal problems.

He maintained that he will help revamp the cash-strapped ministry to alleviate the nation's budgetary conundrum.

"I am not under any delusion that the work ahead is easy."

The Bill contained clauses that sought to increase the tax revenue to reduce the nation's budget deficit and ultimately tame the debt crisis.