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"id": 1077026,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1077026/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": {
"id": 1835,
"legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
"slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
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"content": "Just to begin with where the Leader of the Minority Party has stopped on the role that this House plays in the budget-making process, the National Treasury and the Executive must understand that the Constitution clearly gives the power of the purse and the work of approving the Budget to this House. Indeed, it is quite clear from the actions of the National Treasury that they expect that this House will simply rubberstamp Budget Estimates as they come. Even Members who are not Members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, but sit in the Departmental Committees spend a lot of time to engage with their Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be able to come up with decisions on what to reallocate from one sector to another within the ceiling that was set during the Budget Policy Statement engagement. Therefore, nobody in the Executive should imagine that this budget process will just come and be passed in this House without a single amendment to the allocations as they have proposed. Therefore, they must allow both the Departmental Committees and the Budget and Appropriations Committee to make any necessary reallocations within the sectors so long as those reallocations, as I said, are within the Budget Policy Statement. Let me also appreciate what has also been mentioned earlier that, at least, for the first time this year and for three years, we have belaboured the point that the National Treasury must endeavour to adhere to the Budget Policy Statement as approved by the House. I am happy to note that looking at Kshs14 billion against Kshs3.2 trillion, they have tried largely to adhere to the Budget Policy Statement as approved by the House. The difference of that Kshs14 billion largely emanates from the changes in the Consolidated Funds Services (CFS). On the CFS, many of you know that it relates to statutory things that must be paid ahead of everything else including that repayment. You must appreciate that with the exchange rate fluctuations in this last one year because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it may not have been possible to be very accurate, therefore, you can allow the National Treasury to pass on this issue of the Kshs14 billion on CFS. Allow me to speak on the CFS briefly. We are here approving Budget Estimates for the next financial year, based on revenues that are estimated at about Kshs2.03 trillion. Out of that, roughly Kshs1.8 trillion is from ordinary revenue. I have listened to a number of contributions both from the Chairperson, Budget and Appropriations Committee and what the Leader of the Minority Party was trying to defend or rather put his word on. However, I beg to disagree that, if you look at the revenue estimates as they were revised last year, with the first supplementary budget at Kshs1.594 trillion, we are yet to get to that level of Kshs1.594 trillion, with only about three weeks of revenue collection remaining this financial year. In fact, it is two weeks without counting the last week of the financial year. That tells you that in the midst of this pandemic, and if you read through the Report of the Committee, they have been very articulate to say that the revenue growth and the growth in Gross Domestic Product that they project to about 6.3 per cent is anchored on certain fundamentals. Those fundamentals are also confronted by certain risks. Among those fundamentals and basic assumptions that they make to base the growth of revenue projection and the growth in GDP of 6.3 per cent are; one, that we have a very stable macro-economic environment. Two, is that we have a very stable political environment that we have certainty in the political environment. Three, is that both the external demand of our goods and services will increase in the next one year. Lastly, is that the primary consumption within the country will also grow. If you just weigh those four factors alone, for instance, a stable and certainty in political environment in a year preceding a general election in this country and in a year when there is still The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}