- The new Kenyan president, William Ruto proposes to honour his election promise. The proposal to tax the super rich more is on cards for bringing in a fairer tax structure and bottom-up economic plan.
The new Kenyan president, William Ruto proposes to honour his election promise. The proposal to tax the super rich more is on cards for bringing in a fairer tax structure and bottom-up economic plan.
In his inaugural speech in parliament on 29 September, Ruto supported higher taxes for the richest citizens to improve tax collection. He favoured a tax system of hierarchy that taxes wealth, consumption, income and trade, in that order of preference.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Treasury revealed that after the tax benefits in the five years to 2021 were trimmed, wealthy households and firms lost Sh145.39 billion in tax benefits. Tax benefits fell to Sh259.51 billion last year from Sh404.90 billion in 2017, according to the 2022 annual report on tax expenditures by the Treasury. The revenue forgone by the government is in accordance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) condition. IMF wanted the Treasury to make public the benefits and their impact on the budget by end of September of each year. Cutting concessions such as Preferential rates of tax, investment deductions, tax reliefs, zero-rating for value-added tax (VAT) purposes and exemptions were part of the structural benchmarks with the IMF.
IMF argued that the tax incentives have failed to contribute to the economy by way of higher growth in investments, employment opportunities and affordable prices for consumers.
Also read;
https://trendsnafrica.com/kenyas-debt-burden-crosses-the-sh8-61-trillion-mark/
