Kenyan Budget 2013/2014

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has just unveiled the national budget for the year 2013/2014 at Parliament.

The total expenditure amounts to Sh1,640.9 billion while the gross development expenditures is estimated at Sh447.9 billion.

The total revenue estimates for fiscal year 2013/14 stands at Sh1,027.2 billion, comprising of Sh961.3 billion of ordinary revenue, and Sh 67.0 billion of appropriations-in aid.

The total revenue estimate represents an increase of 7.5 percent over the Budget Estimates for 2012/13.

Budgetary Allocations by Sectors

Education

Sh53.2 billion has been set aside for deployment of 1.35 million laptops to class one pupils, development of digital content, and building capacity of teachers and rolling out computer laboratory for class 4 to class 8 in all schools throughout the country. (Translates to Sh 17.4 billion each financial year starting from FY 2013/14)

Sh10.3 billion will go to free Primary Education.

Sh 2.6 billion for school feeding programme.

Sh 20.9 billion for free Day Secondary Education.

Sh 1.17 billion for Secondary Schools Bursary.

Sh4.9 billion to Higher Educations Loans Board (HELB) for higher education.

Sh 800 million to upgrade the National Schools.

Judiciary & Parliament 

Sh16.1 billion for Judicial reforms and delivery of justice. 

Sh19 billion for expanded representation and bicameral system installation.

Infrastructure

Sh78.5 billion for scaling up investment in reliable and affordable energy, of which Ksh 12.5 billion will be for geothermal development.

Sh43.8 billion to power transmission.

Sh3.7 billion for construction of the first three berths and associated infrastructure of the Lamu port under the LAPSET project.

Sh97.9 billion has been allocated for continued road expansion, upgrading and rehabilitation throughout the country in order to improve the conditions of road network, promote commerce and expand economic opportunities for our people, both in urban and rural areas.

Sh22 billion to commence the construction of a two-track standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Kisumu to improve turn-round time and reduce significantly the cost of freight from Mombasa to Kisumu, by as much as 79 percent from about Ksh.140,000 to Ksh.30,000.

Investment in Food Security 

Sh2 billion to Agri-business loans through commercial banks.

Sh8 billion goes to irrigation projects in the country.

Sh3.6 billion to implement the first Phase of the 1-million acre irrigation and food security project in Galana covering completing the detailed study, developing an implementation framework and business plan, administrative support, monitoring and reporting; sinking of water points.

Investment in Security

Sh 67 billion has been allocated for the National Police Services which covers:

• Sh 4 billion for purchase of security equipment.
• Sh 4.5 billion for enhanced security operations throughout the country.
• Sh 1.5 billion for enhanced crime research and investigation to understand crime dynamics and enable the law enforcers to come up with appropriate strategies for crime prevention.
• Sh 3 billion for leasing 1,200 motor vehicles annually to motorize police force and make police patrol visible everywhere to respond to any reported crime much more efficiently.
• Sh 1.2 billion for a rapid development of 2,000 housing units through the National Housing Corporation.

Youth Empowerment 

826 million to Youth Polytechnics.

Sh6 billion has been set aside to ensure that the youth engage in income generating programmes including making funds easily accessible to citizens in all parts of the country under a better delivery mechanism modelled along the lines of the CDF.

Health
Sh31.6 billion has been set aside for the MTEF period.
Starting this financial year, Sh10.6 billion has been proposed covering;

• Sh 3.8 billion for free access to maternal health
• Sh 700 million for free access to all health centers and dispensaries
• Sh 3.1 billion for recruitment of 30 community nurses per constituency
• Sh 522 million for recruitment 10 community health workers per constituency to provide quality health care services to Kenyans. 
• Sh 1.2 billion for provision of 1,500 affordable housing units to health care workers to enable them respond and attend to patients in a timely manner.

Sh200 million for the construction of health care facility in slum areas of Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.

Mitigating Poverty and vulnerability

Sh13.4 billion has been allocated as follows;

• Sh 8.0 billion is for doubling the number of orphans and vulnerable children under the cash transfer programme from 155,000 households to 310,000 households;
• Sh 3.2 billion for increasing two-fold number of elder persons under cash transfer from 59,000 to 118,000
• Sh 770 million for doubling coverage of those with extreme disability from 14,700 to 29,400 households
• Sh 452 million for doubling the number of other disabled persons under coverage of cash transfer
• Sh 400 million for Presidential Secondary School Bursary Scheme for orphans, poor and bright students
• Sh. 356 million for urban food subsidy
• Sh 100 million for Albinos

Proposed Tax Measures

• An amendment to the Customs and Excise Act to introduce a Railway Development Levy of 1.5percent on all imported goods, in order to mobilize additional Sh15 billion to fund construction of a standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Kisumu.
• Increase import duty on welding electrodes from 10percent to 25percent. Tax on millstones and grindstones would go up from 0 percent to 25 percent while plastic tubes for packing of toothpaste, cosmetics and similar products from 10 percent to 25 percent.
• An amendment to the Income Tax Act so as to impose withholding tax on winnings from gaming and betting.
• Amendment also to empower the commissioner to access books of accounts and where tax evasion is proved in court.
• Introduction of customs warehouse rent for entered goods which remain at the port of discharge for a period exceeding 21 days from the date of commencement of discharge.
• Exemption for plastic bag bio-gas digesters due to its gaining of prominence as an alternative source of renewable energy for cooking and electricity generation in the rural areas.
• Tax Appeals Tribunal Bill that will establish a single tax appeals body. Re-table to parliament the VAT Bill, which aims to simplify, modernise and reduce cost of compliance.
• Exemption of premiums for employee's Group Life and Group Personal Accident policy covers where they do not confer a benefit to the employees.
• Extension of the exemption period to five years for Persons with Disabilities.
• Review of the Capital gains tax under the Income Tax Act with a view to formulating modalities for its effective enforcement. 
• Amendment to the senator keg beer regulation by reducing the remission by 50 percent and to grant it only in respect of beer made of millet, sorghum and cassava. The senator keg will, however, continue to enjoy a remission at this new level, on a transitional basis, for a period of three years.
• Amendments to the Kenya Deposit Insurance Act to expand the Corporation’s mandate and enhance its corporate governance.
• Amendments to the Insurance Act to open up the ownership of insurance companies and brokerage firms to other citizens of the EAC Community.
• Amendments to the law to remove restriction of foreign ownership for insurance agents.

Other Budgetary Estimates 

On expenditure, a total of Ksh1,640.9 billion including contingency provision;
County transfer of Sh210.0 billion and allocation for the Judiciary and Parliament amounting to Sh 16.1 billion and Sh 19.0 billion respectively.
Of this, gross recurrent expenditure for the National Government is estimated at Sh955.5 billion. This includes Sh67.3 billion, which will be financed through Appropriations–in–Aid, and Sh380.3 billion financed directly from the Consolidated Fund Services.
The balance of Sh507.9 billion represents discretionary recurrent expenditures.

The Consolidated Fund Services consists of Sh110.2 billion for domestic interest payments;
Sh11.2 billion for foreign interest payments; Sh38.2 billion for pensions; Sh3.4 billion for salaries and allowances of constitutional office holders; and Sh1.4 billion for guaranteed debt payments and other non-discretionary expenditures.

Finance external redemption amounting to Sh88.6 billion and domestic redemptions amounting to Sh127.3 billion. Gross development expenditures is estimated at Sh447.9 billion. Of this Sh201.1 billion will be financed through Appropriations–in–Aid, comprising of direct project financing of Sh55.9 billion in form of grants, Sh140.5 billion in form of loans, and Sh4.8 billion in form of Local Appropriations-in-Aid.

The financing of  net development expenditure amounting to Sh246.8 billion from the Exchequer. This comprises of Sh11.5 billion in form of grants revenue; Sh47.1 billion in form of loans revenue; and Sh188.2 billion domestically financed.