The Treasury is targeting a revenue collection of Sh1.49 billion up from Sh1.29 billion in the last financial year/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 29 – The National Treasury has submitted Sh2.3 Trillion national budget estimates for the financial year 2016/2017 ahead of Saturday’s deadline.
The Treasury is targeting a revenue collection of Sh1.49 billion up from Sh1.29 billion in the last financial year.
Overall expenditure and net lending is projected at Sh2.26 billion up from the estimated Sh1.84 billion in the current financial year.
Domestic financing of development plans is estimated at Sh398.4 billion up from Sh305 billion while the country has received commitments worth Sh410.6 billion in external financing.
In the executive summary, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said external borrowing will largely be biased towards concessional loans.
The budget which has been prepared during a slow global recovery will focus on economic growth and sustainable development.
According to the latest report from the Treasury, resources will be allocated to security food security and agriculture, transport and logistics, flood control and water harvesting and other key projects so as to drive inclusive growth.
According to the estimates, Parliament has been allocated Sh24.6 billion, the Judiciary Sh15.3 billon while Sh228.5 billion has been allocated to constitutional commissions such as the Teachers Services Commission and other independent offices.
The National Government Constituency Fund (formerly CDF) has been allocated Sh34.5 billion while Sh6 billion has been set aside for the Equalization Fund and another Sh6 billion has been given to the resettling of IDPS and restorative Justice.
In the education sector, a total of Sh13.4 billion has been proposed for the deployment of laptops to schools, development of digital content, building capacity of teachers and rolling out computer laboratory for primary schools throughout the country.
The National Treasury also plans to allocate Sh32 billion for Free Day Secondary Education and Sh14 billion for Free Primary Education. Sh400 billion will go towards distribution of sanitary towels for girls in schools.
Teachers will have something to smile about as Sh4.5 billion has been assigned for recruitment and promotion of teachers and another Sh2.8 billion for House Allowance Phase II.
In the food security and agriculture cluster, Sh12.2bn has been allocated for the on-going irrigation projects country and transformation of agriculture from subsistence to productive commercial farming. This includes Sh3.2 billion allocated to the Galan-Kalalu Irrigation Project, Sh3.2 billon for Mwea Irrigation Project and Sh2.2 billion for National Expanded Irrigation Programme.
Other key allocations include Sh4.9 billion for inputs subsidy, Sh1.97 billion for the strategic grain reserve, Sh1 billion for crop diversification programme in Meru (miraa farmers).
About The Author
