Treasury under fire over key Bill
Parliament’s Budget Committee led by chairman Elias Mbau has given the Treasury an eight-day ultimatum to submit the Finance Bill to the House or refund an estimated Sh5 billion in “illegal taxes”. FILE
The Treasury has eight days to submit the controversial Finance Bill to Parliament or refund an estimated Sh5 billion in “illegal taxes”.
Parliament’s Budget Committee on Thursday accused the Treasury of attempting to ignore Parliament in the Budget-making process.
“This mischief and deliberate attempt to bypass Parliament will not be entertained,” said Mr Elias Mbau, chairman of the committee.
Addressing a news conference at Parliament buildings, Mr Mbau and committee members Danson Mungatana, John Mbadi and Abdul Bahari said all revenues must be collected legally.
“The continued collection of illegal taxes by the government shows great indiscipline on the part of the Treasury since all revenues should be collected within the law,” said Mr Mbau.
The Treasury has until April 20 to acquiesce to the demands or “forget about it and arrange to refund taxpayers’ the cash so far illegally collected.”
The Finance Bill has been at the centre of a tussle between MPs and the Treasury over the proposal to curb interest rates.
The MPs upbraided Finance minister Robinson Githae for the failure to present the Bill plus two other documents that are required for the budget-making process to begin.
They said the Budget Policy Statement ought to be tabled next Tuesday when the House resumes sittings.
According to the law, the BPS should have been tabled by March 21. MPs now insist that there were elements in the Treasury keen to lock Parliament out of the budgeting process.
Beat deadlines
The Supplementary Budget, the committee said, also has to be tabled in the House on April 20.
The MPs revealed that the Treasury had met the committee a week before Parliament’s recess last month and promised to beat all the deadlines, only for Mr Githae to go back on his word.
The MPs also warned that if the minister fails to beat the deadline of submitting the supplementary budget, then, they’d be reluctant to give it a nod in Parliament, now that it will just be 60 days to the expiry of the financial year.
