The National Treasury has not been able to pay the country’s civil servants, including Members of Parliament their March salaries, something Minority Leader in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi says signals the deep financial crisis the country is currently in.
In a statement on Friday, the Ugenya MP noted the Azimio Coalition is deeply worried about the situation which points to a collapse in the country’s economic system.
“The Azimio Coalition Party is deeply concerned at the worsening economic situation in the country that has seen the government unable to meet one of its most basic obligations, which is paying its workers. We fear that this country is collapsing while we sit pretty, hoping for miracles,” Wandayi said in a press statement on Friday, April 7.
The Minority Leader said President William Ruto’s administration had promised to improve tax collection and expand the tax base in efforts to increase the revenue that the National Treasury receives, yet it cannot account to where the money is going.
“Upon assuming office in September 2022, Kenya Kwanza immediately announced that the National Treasury, from the scrapped fuel subsidy alone, would save Sh9.49 billion. The regime then embarked on massive tax increases. In came 20 per cent tax on M-Pesa; internet transactions went up to 16 per cent, 15 per cent capital gains tax on the transfer of property, VAT on e-books and videoconferencing, the list is endless,” Wandayi said.
“The government had conceptualised that the measures were supposed to boost revenue collection to between Sh4 trillion and Sh5 trillion per year, and enable the government to finance its operations, but that has not happened,” he said.
“Where the proceeds from taxes and savings from scrapped subsidies are going, we can’t tell. The easy conclusion is that the criminals at KRA are collecting and pocketing taxes as the incompetents at the National Treasury also skim off the revenue while failing to come up with sound policies for cash flow,” he said.
Normally, MPs receive their salaries by the end month between the 26th and 30th.
