Ruto’s Wrath: Landlords and Gamblers in the Crosshairs

President William Ruto aims to focus extensively on the real estate and betting industries to reach the Sh3 trillion revenue collection in the upcoming fiscal year, landlords and gamblers are on President Ruto’s radar.

According to the National Treasury, among the measures that have been planned as the government aims to increase revenues from 17.3% of GDP in the current FY to 17.8% in 2023/24 are mapping out all rental properties and linking Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) systems with the gambling industry.

The Kenya Revenue Authority will be able to collect thousands of landlords who presently do not pay taxes as a result, and the new administration will have even more control over Kenya’s gambling sector.

“The National Treasury, jointly with the KRA, is making improvements on tax administrative measures in order to ensure revenue collection remains on target. These include implementation of a new web-based improved VAT system, integration of KRA system with the betting sector, and mapping of rental properties,” said Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo.

According to Treasury, improvements will be done even while the incoming administration pursues the National Tax Policy. The policy development is rumored to be at an advanced stage, and public hearings for the 2023–24 Budget and the Medium-Term Preparations began yesterday.

Minimize recurring expenses.

Treasury said it plans to control recurring spending on items like travel, training, and hospitality classified under Operations and Maintenance, which cost the government Sh1.4 trillion in 2021/22, in order to reduce the budget deficit from the current year’s 6.2% to 4.3% in 2023/24 and slow the accumulation of debt.

“The government will continue to restrict growth in recurrent spending by cutting down on non-priority expenditures. In this regard, expenditures as a share of GDP are projected to decline from 23.3 percent in FY 2022/23 to 22.4 percent in FY 2023/24 and further to 21.7 percent in FY 2025/26,” Treasury stated.

The administration of President Ruto claims that it wants to pursue a “growth-friendly” budgetary consolidation for the 2023–2024 budget in order to maintain debt sustainability.

The new administration will use a bottom-up approach to spur economic recovery, according to Treasury CS Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, focusing on safeguarding private investments, creating, regulating, and defending markets, and developing digital solutions.

“The Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda will seek to increase investments in at least five sectors envisaged to have the largest impact on the economy as well as on household welfare. These include agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprises, housing and settlement, healthcare, and the digital superhighway and creative industry,” the CS said.

He continued by saying that the administration intended to prioritize aggressive income mobilization, including changing policies.

The CS transmitted President Ruto’s proposals to restructure project management in order to close gaps and hold those in charge accountable in the event of failure or delay.

Ndindi Nyoro, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee, asserted that by safeguarding important program allocations that updated budgets must not affect, Parliament will stop the Treasury from frequently releasing supplementary budgets.