The report which was tabled in the House on Wednesday afternoon has provided a budget of Sh1.4 trillion/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 7 – The Budget Committee is on Thursday afternoon expected to table a Motion for the adoption of the Report on the estimates of revenue and expenditure for 2012/2013 before Parliament.
The report which was tabled in the House on Wednesday afternoon has provided a budget of Sh1.4 trillion up from Sh1.2 trillion in the Budget Policy Statement estimates.
“There are glaring discrepancies between the figures provided in the Budget Policy Statement and those provided in the printed estimates. While the Budget Policy Statement Estimate of expenditure and net lending was Sh1.265 trillion, the printed estimate now amount to Sh1.462 trillion excluding principle debt repayment,’’ the report stated.
The committee has created savings amounting to Sh19.6 billion to be allocated to key priority areas.
Among the key areas that require immediate funding according to the committee, are agriculture which has been allocated Sh10 billion, (Sh9 billion for advance drip irrigation and Sh1 billion for the provision of farm inputs especially purchase of fertilizers).
Finalisation of the third generation Identity Cards and improving the population registration services during the coming elections follows with an allocation of Sh2.5 billion.
The Equalisation Fund has been given an addition allocation of Sh1.2 billion to Sh6.7 billion. In line with this, the committee has called on the Commission on Revenue allocation (CRA), to hasten in publishing the criteria for the identification of marginalized areas.
Other expenditure increment recommendations include Sh562.8 million for the Constituency Development Fund and an addition allocation of Sh2.6 billion for the improvement of service delivery in the health sector.
“Sh683 million for the recruitment of more health workers in the public hospitals, Sh500 million to purchase pharmaceutical products to meet the drug shortage in the country,” a section of the report reads.
The report says Sh700 million should be added to the Ministry of Roads and Ministry of Transport to improve the infrastructure.
An addition allocation of Sh2.2 billion will help to improve security in the country with Sh1.2 billion going to Ministry of State for Public Administration and National Security for installation of CCTV cameras while Sh1 billion to be used for the construction and equipping of the CID Forensic Laboratory.
The report has recommended addition allocation of Sh1.65 billion to boast agriculture, Sh1billion to the Ministry of Energy to increase funding for rural electrification programme.
Expenditure reallocations include, Sh8 billion domiciled in Ministry of Finance to be allocated to the Ministry of Water and Sh1.5 billion will be used for putting up infrastructure for county assemblies.
“The committee has also identified certain areas where resources are to be allocated from one area to another. This has been done to promote efficiency in government operations,” the report emphasised.
If the report goes through to become the 2012/13 Budget, it will see several expenditure cuts under the Recurrent Expenditure.
These includes cutting foreign travel costs by 50 percent in all ministries, Judiciary and Parliament, printing and advertising information costs to be slashed by 30 percent.
Fuel and lubricants spending was also cut by 20 percent, but with the exception of Ministries of Roads, Energy, Defence and Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security whose allocation remains.
“The following proposed reductions in the current expenditure will result in a saving of Sh15.344, 599,994 of which Sh12,258,541,087 arises due to cuts in the recurrent budget for all ministries including Parliament and Judiciary, while Sh3.096,058,906 is savings from the expenditure cuts of parastatals recurrent budget,” said the report.
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