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"content": "Hon. Members, on the matter of whether the Supplementary Estimates have been properly laid before the House considering that the Finance Bill, 2011 has not been passed by the House and, therefore, the measures which were intended to finance the Budget have not yet been enacted, it needs to be noted, as was explained by the Minister for Finance, that there is no direct link between the Supplementary Estimates and the Finance Bill. This is because the Supplementary Estimates derive their mandate from the Appropriations Bill, 2011 already passed by the House. The Supplementary Estimates seek to make adjustments to the Appropriations Bill, 2011, and set the stage for the passage of the Supplementary Appropriations Bill and have no bearing on the Finance Bill, which addresses itself to matters relating to raising of revenue through taxation measures. I, therefore, rule that the Supplementary Estimates have been properly laid and may be proceeded with by the House. Hon. Members, this is not to say that the matter of the Finance Bill and its protracted state of limbo is not of concern. It is important for all of us to appreciate the role of the Finance Bill. It provides an opportunity to amend tax and other related laws as well as coming up with new measures. Parliament is required to deliberate on these matters and enact the necessary laws as contained in the Finance Bill to allow Government to raise the requisite resources. When the Minister tables the Finance Bill he also has the authority under the Provisional Collection of Taxes and Duties Act, to collect resources on some of these measures while he awaits the enactment of the Finance Bill. This provisional Act, however, expires after six months within which the Finance Bill should have been enacted. When this does not happen, the question which has severally been raised in this House about how the Minister proposes to collect revenue to finance the current Budget becomes a legitimate one. This, however, was not the subject of the present communication, and furthermore, as had been promised by the Minister for Finance, the Committee of the Whole House on the Finance Bill, 2011 is appearing on today’s Order Paper as Order No. 10. It may, therefore, be well to leave the matter at that for now. Hon. Members, in order to obviate the need for further communication of directions from the Chair on the matter of the Budget process, I wish to draw the attention of the House to the comprehensive Communication from the Chair which I gave on 7th June last year, and which remains in force for the remainder of the term of this Parliament. I made it clear then, and I reiterate that the regime of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 in relation to the Public Finance chapter of the Constitution is applicable, and that it follows that every effort must be made to abide by the provisions of that chapter in every respect. Going forward, it is, therefore, the expectation of the Chair, and indeed of this House, that this will be so. I thank you."
}