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{
    "id": 245259,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245259/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 174,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 198,
        "legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
        "slug": "chrysanthus-okemo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for Finance, whose Budget Speech I have had the chance to look at. I believe that there are good things in the Budget that we can commend, and also some areas where clarification will be necessary. There are also some things which may not 1746 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 29, 2006 necessarily be consistent. The policy objectives and the actions that the Minister is taking do not seem to be consistent in some cases. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Budget, as I see it, is an expansionary Budget, which means that we are actually spending more money than we are collecting. Therefore, we have a Budget deficit which has to be bridged by money borrowed from various sources. When I look at the Financial Statement, it is very clear that the Minister will have to do a number of things to bridge the financing gap. One of the things that he will have to do is to borrow from the domestic market. According to the figures in the Budget, he will have to borrow Kshs29.5 billion from the domestic market. That is about Kshs5 billion more than what was borrowed in the previous financial year. To me, that is a source of worry. If you start off from the position that the Minister wants to achieve a lower rate of inflation, coming down from 13 per cent today to 5 per cent, as stated in his Budget Speech; that is, certainly, not a policy move that will help to achieve that objective. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the amount of roll-overs; that is the money that is borrowed domestically and is going to be re-borrowed; which means it is not new borrowing but re-borrowed, there is a huge figure of Kshs51.8 billion. If you add that to Kshs29.5 billion, then you are looking at a ballooning domestic debt which is going to have implications on our interest rates in the domestic market. I cannot understand how the Minister is going to achieve a decline of inflation rates from 13 per cent to 5 per cent within an environment of extremely high crude prices---"
}