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{
    "id": 802309,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/802309/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Atandi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13290,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Onunga Atandi",
        "slug": "samuel-onunga-atandi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. For the first time, I have seen the National Assembly is a budget- making body because of the way this Committee has executed its mandate. They have captured the Budget in a way that makes a lot of sense. As we are aware, the purpose of the Budget is basically to implement the Government’s development agenda. Therefore, we should ensure that it complies with fiscal discipline because, as a country, we only budget for what we can fund. From the estimates, a fundamental question I want to ask this House is this: How is this Budget going to be financed? From the estimates and projections, we can see that domestic revenues will probably fund 62 per cent of this Budget. This means about 38 per cent of this Budget will be funded through domestic and foreign borrowings. To me, this is a very critical area because, in short, there is a mismatch between the projected revenues and expenditures. Domestic debts are basically short- term Treasury Bills. They constitute the largest source of local borrowings. In terms of foreign borrowing, we are going to rely on concessional loans or probably the Euro Bonds. As you are aware, Kenyans are concerned about the ballooning level of our public debt. As we talk right now, every Kenyan born today accrues a total of Kshs100,000 on his or her head. I know that the Finance Bill will come to this House shortly. I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, but I am not certain that the proposal contained in that Bill is going to help us sort this deficit. I am concerned because this House must be very careful and critical when it looks at the way this Budget is going to be funded. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}