Azimio Raises Concerns in Budget Policy Statement

Azimio Raises Concerns in Budget Policy Statement

Azimio Raises Concerns in Budget Policy Statement

The Treasury published the government’s 2024 Budget Policy Statement on Thursday, but the Azimio coalition pointed out flaws in it.The Treasury claims that the policy measures were formulated to lower living expenses, foster a climate that fosters corporate growth, and increase economy-wide efficiencies.

Azimio, however, cautioned Kenyans to prepare for double taxes even as he described the assertion as faulty and unrealistic. Azimio insisted on their allegations and said the government intended to tax any adult who earned more than Ksh27,000 twice.

“If the BPS is anything to go by, Kenyans must be ready to tighten their belts because the Kenya Kwanza regime is coming after them in a second wave of taxes,” Azimio stated.”

The regime is coming again with a double taxation plan with increased taxes of approximately Ksh27,000 per adult Kenyan,” commented Azimio, adding that the levies were spread across many sectors. “To the ordinary Kenyans, the Mama mboga, Boda-Boda riders, and the people of Mjengo,” he said.

One of the sectors is education where parents were cautioned to prepare for hiked school fees as the BPS proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) on educational services, especially extra-curricular activities. Last year, the Treasury warned that VAT exemption on education that includes all services provided by schools creates unfairness.

“Some services like swimming when offered out of school are vatable. To remove this discrimination, there is a need to impose VAT on the additional benefits. In this respect, the government will explore the introduction of VAT on services provided by schools but not directly related to education,” Treasury stated.

Azimio further accused the government of coming up with inflated, questionable and imaginary budgetary figures without clear measures of how it would raise the funds.

“A cursory look at the Budget Policy Statement, 2024 indicates that will kill the middle class and when the middle class is dead, they will hurt millions of our people,” Raila’s camp stated.

Meanwhile, the coalition also admonished the Housing Levy bill which is meant to finance the Affordable Housing Program. Azimio termed it as unfair, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.

Raila’s team urged Kenyans to put on notice the Members of Parliament who betrayed their wishes by voting for the bill that passed its third reading on Wednesday. Ironically, some of Azimio MPs who opposed the bill in public skipped a crucial Parliament session on Tuesday where 141 lawmakers cast their ballot in favour of the bill against 58.

On Wednesday, the bill moved forward to the third reading, but Azimio’s antics caused its members to leave the House. They also vowed to use public demonstrations as a means of applying more pressure on Ruto or to go to court to oppose the contentious housing levy bill. Still, the bill was sent to the Senate for approval.

“As the Affordable Housing Levy Bill, 2023 moves to the Senate, we once again ask the Senators from across the political divide to be patriotic and reject this Bill,” said Azimio.Regarding the local currency’s exchange rate vs the US dollar, Raila’s team claimed that the shilling had been artificially manipulated, calling Kenya Kwanza’s action unsustainable.

Azimio claimed that the value of the shilling was still changing at roughly Ksh150 to the US dollar, in spite of the government’s fruitless attempts to stabilize it.

Therefore, the Kenya Kwanza regime’s free collapse of the shilling is a massive betrayal of the Kenyan people. A prime illustration of the regime’s “race to the bottom,” the coalition declared.

In addition to being questioned over its careless borrowing, Azimio also charged that the Kenya Kwanza administration had increased its spending by more than Ksh400 billion. Ruto’s administration proceeded to borrow money at an exorbitant rate of 22 percent from the domestic market in spite of multiple warnings of financial difficulties and the possibility of default.

“The regime went against its promise to reduce borrowing and did the complete opposite today KK regime has borrowed close to Ksh2 Trillion in just one and half years,” Azimio stated.

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