The National Treasury Principal Secretary nominee Chris Kiptoo on Monday, November 14 announced a raft of measures that he will undertake to cut government expenditure and raise revenue should he be approved.
While appearing before the Finance Committee for vetting, Kiptoo pledged focus on formulating a framework to widen the tax base and increase tax compliance.
These were part of the fiscal consolidation measures that the PS nominee promised to address the current national debt that currently stands at Ksh8.8 trillion and fund the huge recurrent expenditure by the government.
While answering questions from members of the parliamentary committee on Finance and National Planning, chaired by Molo lawmaker Kimani Kuria, Kiptoo pointed out that there is need to increase the tax base by focusing on the informal sector form the majority of working force in the country.
“We have little fiscal space given the huge development agenda and we can only deal with this by widening the tax base and increasing compliance with those currently existing,” Kiptoo told the lawmakers.
This comes just a week after President William Ruto urged Kenyans to pay taxes to enable the government fulfill its mandate.
The PS nominee intimated to the MPs that he will be joining a team that will be working to increase the tax base by focusing on the income tax and VAT.
Kiptoo also took up the challenge from President William Ruto to cut unnecessary government expenditures by announcing a raft of austerity measures.
He demonstrated his awareness of the government's need to cut on certain budgets including travel,reduction on purchase on fleet management and removing spending on stationery.
“We are in a digital era and therefore we should do away with stationeries some of these things we can do on email,” he indicated.
According to the PS nominee, the government is raising Ksh2.2 trillion in revenues of which Ksh1 trillion is used to service debt while most of the remaining revenue is spent on salaries and trips with so little remaining for development purposes.
The vetting of PS nominees by different Parliamentary committees will continue throughout the week until Friday, November 18.
