MPs to vote on Uhuru Kenyatta's new tax measures this afternoon

The fate of President Uhuru Kenyatta's memorandum on the Finance Bill, 2018 and the supplementary budget estimates will be known on Thursday afternoon after the reports of the two documents were tabled in the House this morning.

The report on the memorandum was tabled by Kipkelion East MP Joseph Limo, who is the chairman of the Finance and National Planning Committee.

Mr Limo's colleague Kimani Ichungwah (Kikuyu), the chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, tabled the report on the supplementary budget.

The two committees held separate marathon sessions on Wednesday to consider the two reports that have a huge impact on the financing of this year's budget.

BILLIONS AT STAKE

Whereas President Kenyatta’s memorandum seeks to ensure that the government raises about Sh130 billion to finance the budget, the report on estimates seeks to slash the Sh3.026 trillion budget by Sh55 billion.

Already, MPs from both sides of the political divide have vowed to shoot down the two reports.

It will require at least two-thirds majority or 233 of the 349 MPs to veto the President's memorandum.

The MPs' anger against the two reports is based on the expected rise in the cost of living since the Head of State opposed deferring proposed 16 percent VAT on fuel products for another two years.

The House had voted to defer the VAT by another two years since it was passed in 2013 but the President disagreed and went ahead to slash it by half to 8 percent, saying that the government badly needs revenue to finance its priorities.

The slashing of the budget will also affect the government's development agenda.

The government is finding it difficult to borrow more money to finance its budget because of a huge foreign debt that crossed a Sh5.2 trillion mark in June this year.