Treasury Strives to Trim Ksh.99 billion from 2019/20 Budget

The National Treasury has proposed cutting expenditure by Ksh.99.2 billion from the current budget in proposals submitted to the National Assembly on Tuesday, April 15.

According to the Supplementary Estimates No.2 2019/2020, the National Government will cut spending by Ksh.74.4 billion while revising down payments on pension and interest on the debt will be trimmed by a further Ksh.24.8 billion.

The Treasury proposals state that the allocations to both the National Assembly and the Judiciary are set to come down with instilling cuts of Ksh.2.5 billion and Ksh.1.7 billion to leave their respective budgets at Ksh.17 billion and Ksh.21.3 billion.

The Ministry of Health is surprisingly on the end of cuts to its expenditure against its unprecedented battle with the COVID-19 pandemic as Treasury proposes cuts amounting to Ksh.12.2 billion to its budget.

“The decrease in capital expenditure is mainly due to the rationalization of the budget. To address the COVID-19 disease, the Ministry has been funded with Ksh.3.9 billion, which comprises Ksh.1 billion for recruitment of health workers, Ksh.300 million for operations and Ksh. 2.6 billion under development,” notes the Treasury document.

Big losers in the executive include the National Treasury which has backed cuts amounting to Ksh.35.6 billion to its own budget and the Ministry of Energy which is set to see a Ksh.21.5 billion correction in its spending to Ksh.62.5 billion.

The State Departments of Transport and Infrastructure is set to see respective increases of Ksh.21.1 billion and Ksh.44.1 billion, to be the biggest Winners in the executive pool.

The Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) are expected to witness a significant shift in composition with Treasury proposing a reduction of Ksh.7.8 billion on interest payments to Ksh.433.7 billion from, Ksh.441.5 billion.

A decline to Ksh.91.6 billion from Ksh.109.2 billion will be witnessed in payments on pensions, salaries, and allowances.

Redemptions on principal amounts that do not feature as part of the total budget are however set to jump to Ksh.778.8 billion from Ksh.696.6 billion.

Total spending for the financial year to June is now set to narrow to Ksh.2.7 trillion from Ksh.2.9 trillion subject to potential amendments to spending by Counties.

The proposals by the National Treasury are expected to be part of the amendments discussed in the National Assembly when the house resumes its sittings on Wednesday, April 22.