Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1078737,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078737/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 259,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "I am not in any way suggesting, but we will soon be coming to that, and when that happens, for purposes of raving up this economy so that we can grow at more than 6 per cent, it is important that we start preparing our minds that yes, so long as we know that we are borrowing this money to put in this and not that, we have closed the doors. If we stop wastage then it makes sense to borrow especially now when the rates are so low and so long as the rate of economic growth is higher than the rate of interest we are paying, we are advised to borrow even at personal level. Those are some of the things we need to start thinking of. I want to encourage Members to look at this Budget. Let us also start thinking of the future as we implement it. I have looked at what the Committee has come up with. I have also listened to what the Minister read out to us in terms of the figures he proposed and what the Committee proposed. I do not know, but there is a difference of over Kshs3 billion plus that has not been financed. I want to encourage the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the various departmental chairpersons who have sat together and increased expenditures beyond the fiscal framework. They should go back and expedite the discussion they are having with the National Treasury. This is so that we do not have any expenditure coming into this House that has not been funded. We are the same ones who insist that the budget must be balanced and we cannot be the House that adds on expenditure that does not have matching revenue. So, I ask them to expedite and harmonise the two figures. I am aware from my own engagement with them that the Chairperson is contemplating bringing some amendments, but I will let him speak to that and give the necessary notices so that much as we are approving that figure today, it is likely to change by the time we come to the individual votes in the Committee of Supply. This is so that we do not end up approving a budget here that is not supported. That will mean that because we have exhausted our debt limit in terms of the commitments we made to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that when we now discuss the Finance Bill, the only option will be to ask our people to pay more taxes to finance the extra expenditure. It is easier that we first of all live within our means, that has been committed and a framework has been negotiated. It is unlocking some grants and low cost loans through the international institutions. If we do not get this balance right, we could end up jeopardising some of the negotiations that we made as a country or jeopardising the financial power of our people through having higher taxation."
}