Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah on Sunday, May 12, revealed that he would be challenging the Finance Bill 2024, should the Appropriation Act not be enacted.
Omtatah during an exclusive interview with Kenyans.co.ke remarked that the proposed tax increases were based on an illegality.
The vocal senator wondered why President William Ruto’s administration was keen on raising taxes without furnishing Parliament with revenue estimates.
“We want to set the Appropriation Act that has got a revenue side which then the Finance Bill will be anchored on,” he stated.
“If that is not done then we are going to fight it in its entirety because they must disclose revenue estimates.”
Omtatah revealed that the Kenya Kwanza administration has on several occasions given parliament expenditure for a proposed budget without the corresponding source of revenue.
The parliamentarian explained that a Finance Act was a measure to raise revenue to finance the budget as outlined in the Public Finance Management Act.
Senator Omtatah remarked that not setting up the Appropriation Act before presenting the Bill is against Articles 220 and 221 of the Constitution.
In particular, he quoted Article 220 Clause 1A which states “Budgets of the national and county governments shall contain estimates of revenue and expenditure, differentiating between recurrent and development expenditure.”
Additionally, he references Article 221 Clause 6 which states, “When the estimates of national government expenditure, and the estimates of expenditure for the Judiciary and Parliament have been approved by the National Assembly, they shall be included in an Appropriation Bill, which shall be introduced into the National Assembly to authorise the withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund of the money needed for the expenditure, and for the appropriation of that money for the purposes mentioned in the Bill.”
Omtatah remarked that the Kenya Kwanza administration was now at fault for routinely producing a budget that does not have revenue.
The MP remarked that Ruto’s administration should understand that the Finance Act should be a measure to raise approved revenue.
