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{
    "id": 1459594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1459594/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 216,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "to what we had in the Finance Act, 2023. That Act operates because it has not been repealed, and would only have been repealed if the Act for this year had been passed. Therefore, while there is no lacuna in the Finance Act laws, the correct position is that the Government must be supplied through Supplementary Appropriation Acts, as we are doing now. Allow me to commend the Committee for having found means and ways of ensuring that the Government is going to be supplied, although with the limitations. We have three arms of Government and each of them will have to embrace a cut in the spending which had been projected. We start with the Executive, which carries the lion’s share of the Budget and will also have to carry the lion’s share of the cuts, followed by the Legislature, the second arm of Government. After that, we go to the third arm of Government. We know very well there are two levels of Government, that is, the national government and county governments. County governments must also brace themselves for the proposed cuts. The net effect is that while we anticipated to have more development this year, that may not be realised as fast as we had anticipated, and county governments must now re-look their revenue- raising measures through cess and make them proper and more efficient without having to over- levy citizens. Kenyans are complaining that the level of taxation is quite high and they ask, “What are we getting in return?” Therefore, it is vital that the Government and its officers be prudent in their spending so that as we meet the recurrent expense we must also be prepared to meet the development expense, which is equally important. This House has to do with the loss of Ksh10 billion from NG-CDF that we were all anticipating. Each constituency would have possibly got not less than Ksh30 million. That is now water under the bridge. We still have the figures we had last year and are able to do more because the money is going to be supplied. Whether it is this House or the Judiciary, which also is losing over Ksh1.5 billion, we all have to scale down what we have to do. May I urge everybody to be reasonable and accept the cuts and austerity measures that are put in place so that those luxuries which the Executive, this House, or the Judiciary was enjoying must be reduced so that we remain with what we consider extremely necessary for the benefit of citizens."
}