Treasury CS Ukur Yattani has revealed that Kenya has lost Ksh172 billion in a period of four months.
He was speaking during the National Assembly Leadership Retreat at Ole Sereni hotel, Nairobi on Wednesday, August 26.
He explained that the money had been lost after the government decided to sacrifice some taxes to help cushion the economy.
"As a way of cushioning our economy, we had to forego Ksh172 billion in form of taxes. This means that we have to adjust our budget while containing our spending," he spoke.
However, he expressed optimism that the economy was performing better than expected at 4.6% and would recover.
The news was received well by National Assembly leadership among them Speaker Justin Muturi.
"We are encouraged by the positive outlook of the economy that CS Yattani has presented to us, amidst the global economic disruptions occasioned by the pandemic.
"We have underscored to him the need to realise value for money from all government appropriations," Speaker Muturi praised.
The CS also explained that the shilling had performed fairly well.
The government had expected that by now the shilling would be at Ksh120 against the dollar as a result of the pandemic, but has managed to stay below Ksh110 since the pandemic began.
Additional forex reserves from IMF, ADP and the World Bank have helped stabilise Kenya's currency in the global market.
With regard to the status of the country's debt, Yattani stated that Kenya owed Ksh 6.7 trillion, which is equivalent to almost 60% of the country's GDP.
