NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 6 – President William Ruto has defended his unpopular revamped tax collection measures to fund the budget asserting it’s a successful measure implemented during President Mwai Kibaki’s regime.
President Ruto exuded confidence that his administration’s tax collection measures will increase revenue collection and cut on debt borrowing which he says is not sustainable.
“When Kibaki was the President, we used to collect Sh200 billion in revenue. He helped the country until we collected up to Sh900 billion, almost Sh1 trillion,” he stated.
“Will I now loose track when Mzee Kibaki has already showed us that the nation is built on taxes and not debts. That’s where we are,” said Ruto.
The President mentioned that his administration’s proactive approach on subsidizing production is a well-calculated measure to lower the cost of living.
“I worked with Mzee Kibaki and when I was his Agriculture Minister, he told me I look for a plan to reduce fertilizers prices. Because of learning from him that’s why I reduced the fertilizers prices,” said Ruto.
President Ruto has said that his administration has managed to stabilize the economy despite criticism from his detractors that the economic outlook has worsened during his regime.
Ruto has pointed out that his government has moved away from sponsoring the budget of the current financial year through borrowing and focused on funding the budget through taxes imposed on Kenyans.
“We have stabilized the economy of the people of Kenya. We must build this country on a solid foundation not on a foundation of debt. The economy is now stabilized,” said Ruto.
The Head of State buttressed that the government has moved forward to make plans of settling foreign debts before their maturity to ensure the nation is not caught off guard due to an unmitigated crisis.
President Ruto expressed that failure to initiate early plans to repay the foreign loans would have risked the country to default on the loan.
“We sat down and planned and said that we won’t wait until next year June. Those rogue credit rating agencies, those who are used to use fishy ways to increase debt have now written to us questioning why we are paying the loan early,” said Ruto.
