House team pledges to consider wananchi views on Finance Bill

Finance and National Planning Committee Chairman Kuria Kimani. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The National Assembly's Finance and National Planning Committee has said it will carefully consider the proposals presented in the Finance Bill 2024 to strike a healthy balance as it closed sessions with stakeholders on Friday.

Committee chairman Kimani Kuria said the presentations have shown the importance of coming up with policies that will grow the country's manufacturing sector.

He said the proposals would be carefully considered noting the need for a balance between what is good for corporates and what is good for citizens.

"Sometimes what corporates want has more to do with them and their profits," he said.

A major problem with corporates, the Molo MP said, is that even when the government offers them incentives, sometimes the benefits are not passed to mwananchi. He said every year the economy foregoes almost Sh400 billion in tax exemptions offered to businesses.

"These tax expenditures are not seen in prices. Where incentives are given they must be passed to the consumers," he said.

The Friday session had 25 stakeholders among them the Shippers Council of Kenya, the Digital Financial Services Association of Kenya, the Retirees Benefits Authority, Kenya Flower Council and the Kenya Private School Association.

The highlights of the hearings so far are how some of the proposals will be detrimental to businesses, particularly manufacturers, some who threatened to move to other markets in East Africa.

But Kuria said the government does not intend to export jobs.

"I want to assure Kenyans that we will make the best decisions," he said.

The 25 per cent excise duty on crude palm oil and finished cooking oil proposed in the Bill is one of the bones of contention.

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) argues that the tax would see the cost of a litre of cooking oil increase by Sh168 from Sh300 to Sh468.

"If you decompose the monthly measurements of the Consumer Price Index, prices of oil were part of the bigger driver of inflation last year," said Institute of Economic Affairs Chief Executive Kwame Owino.

KAM Chief Executive Anthony Mwangi said if implemented as is, the Finance Bill 2024 will increase the cost of production, thereby destroying the competitiveness of local and export markets.

Retail prices will also increase and burden the common citizen further and increase cash flow requirements at a time when the environment is characterised by rising interest rates.

"Ultimately, this will render local industries uncompetitive which will push them to either downsize, move to more competitive countries, or close down," Mwangi said.

He added: "Any fees, levies, and duties that are imposed by the government affect Kenyan products and companies not only as domestic taxes but also as drivers of cost un-competitiveness in the Kenyan market as well as international markets like EAC and Comesa," he said.