A man repairs shoes along the streets of the Thika Super Highway in Nairobi, capital of Kenya/XINHUA-File
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 7 – A majority of Kenyans are against the introduction of new taxes as National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich prepares to brief the country on how the government is going to get revenue to finance the 2016/2017 budget of Sh2.3 trillion.
According to a poll by IPSOS, 35 percent of Kenyans says any deficit should be financed through borrowing from donors, 17 percent say the money should be borrowed from investors while 12 percent says money should be borrowed from willing Kenyans.
However, only 12 percent of Kenyans believe government should come up with additional taxes.
“Thirty five percent of Kenyans give “borrow from donors” as a suggestion to the government to fund its budget deficit rather than additional taxation. Borrowing from investors is a second alternative and this includes Public Private Partnerships (PPP),” the survey says.
On budgetary allocations, 25 percent of Kenyans feel that attention of the 2016/17 National Budget should be redirected to agriculture, rural and urban development.
This is the highest compared to 18 percent who want more attention given to the educations sector, 17 percent health sector and 12 percent to energy, infrastructure and ICT.
Public administration and international relations however had the least preference by Kenyans in terms of allocations at 3 percent.
Asked about the current financial year’s budget, less than half of Kenyans, 46 percent says they don’t feel any positive impact in their day to day lives. However 48 percent feel the budget has had appositive impact to them.
“Less than 50 percent of Kenyans felt that that last year’s budget had a positive impact in the ordinary lives of Kenyans,” the study says.
A significant proportion of Kenyans are unaware of the 2016/17 National Budget reading scheduled for the afternoon of July 8, 2016.
When analyzed by region, six out of the 8 regions (Coast, Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western and Eastern) record above 50 percent level of awareness with the exception of North Eastern and Central who record 43percent and 49 percent respectively.
The study was conducted between June 4-7, 2016 amongst 2,184 respondents.
