The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u on Tuesday, February 7, released the Supplementary Budget for the financial year 2022 to 2023.
In the supplementary budget, Ndung'u re-defined the expenditure through the reduction of major spending in departments and ministries.
Professor Ndung'u reworked the supplementary budget to make significant deductions whose net change was Ksh14.1 billion in budgetary cuts.
The Cabinet Secretary proposed the slashing of development spending by Ksh106.3 billion, which essentially, will see the slow growth of some infrastructure projects.
Developmental spending is the expenditure of the government that is aimed at increasing projects and initiatives that are geared toward creating income for the country.
Largely, development expenditure is categorised into spending on the revenue account and capital account.
However, CS Ndung'u revised recurrent expenditure upwards to around Ksh92.2 billion in order to take care of the daily operations of the government.
The difference between recurrent expenditure and capital spending is pegged on the beneficiaries and benefactors.
In the case of recurrent expenditure, the spending is done in form of money and capital assets including wages, salaries, employer contributions, interest payments, subsidies, and transfers.
On the other hand, capital expenditure is where spending is made for the acquisition of fixed capital assets.
Some of the most affected ministries include the Interior, to which, Professor Juguna Ndung'u proposed to slash its budget by around Ksh31.5 billion.
Initially, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration received Ksh143.5 billion, but the proposed budget cuts will bring it to Ksh112.1 billion.
At the same time, the CS revised the consolidated fund downwards and reduced the budget by some Ksh32.13 billion.
While the Cabinet Secretary slashed the debt redemption budget by around Ksh17.3 billion, the interest was also reviewed downwards by Ksh14.80 billion.
Notably, Kenya's debt service obligations currently stand at Ksh1.36 trillion for the financial year 2022/2023.
