Kenya’s Christian Professionals Fault Proposed Finance Bill 2024 as “punitive”, Discouraging “economic activities”

The Christian professionals urge members of the National Assembly to prioritize the public debt crisis, which they describe as “cancer”.

“Parliament must immediately take charge of the public debt management crisis which is killing the economy. It is the cancer we are not treating. The problem of odious and corrupt debt that is contracted and spent outside the law and the constitution has not been addressed at all,” they lament.

The Finance Bill 2024 proposes new taxes on basic commodities, motor vehicles, financial transactions, among other levies.

The KCPF members weigh in on the proposed new taxes on motor vehicles, saying, “The infamous Motor Vehicle Tax seeks to introduce 2.5 percent the value of the vehicle with the floor being set at Kes 5,000 and the ceiling set at Kes 100,000.”

“The Penalty is 50 percent of the uncollected tax plus the actual amount of the uncollected Tax,” they add and lament, “This is not a tax but a haircut on the wealth of Kenyans. If we allow this to pass, next year the haircut will be on Mpesa and bank deposits.”

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The National Treasury has proposed to increase the rate of import Declaration from the current 2.5 percent to 3 percent, which the Christian professionals lament is going to make business harder for everyone, including traders.

“The Finance Bill proposes to tax interest income from new infrastructure bonds. This is punitive tax that will have the effect of dampening the spirit of investing in infrastructure bonds by Kenyans and foreigners,” Kenya’s Christian professionals further lament. 

Among the basic commodities to be taxed in the proposed Finance Bill 2024 include the supply of bread, transportation of sugarcane from farm to milling house, the supply of locally assembled mobile phones, the supply of electric bicycles, and the supply of solar and lithium-ion batteries.

In their memorandum shared with ACI Africa June 13, KCPF members say, “Ordinary bread is used by ordinary citizens, and taxing it will lead to an increase in its price which will hurt the poor who rely on bread as part of their basic diet.”

“Increase in transportation of sugar will lead to increase in the price of sugar which is already too expensive. It is requested that supplies remain zero-rated,” they add.

The Christian professionals describe as “actually absurd” the proposal to introduce withholding tax on goods supplied to public entities at 3 percent for resident persons and 5 percent for non-residents.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.