Members of Parliament passed the first supplementary budget estimates 2020-2021 financial year on Thursday that will raise the government’s spending from one point trillion shillings to Ksh.1.97 trillion.
The report tabled by the Budget and Appropriation Committee (BAC) proposed increments of the total recurrent expenditure by Ksh.19.1 billion.
The proposal which was tabled in parliament for the second time following a boycott by legislators last week over allocations on the national government Constituency Development Fund (CDF) also contains Ksh.10 billion that was deducted in the first sitting.
BAC report also indicated local debt servicing costs to June will jump by Ksh.45.7 billion.
The rise in local redemption costs covers about 78.7 per cent of Ksh.58.1 billion in savings from Kenya’s participation in the debt service initiative so far.
Only 11 creditors have so far agreed to suspend interest payments by Kenya falling due between January 1 and June 30 this year.
This include the elite Paris Club which features 10 creditors which granted Kenya a Ksh.32.9 billion relief in repayments at the start of the year, and China which allowed Kenya to skip Ksh.27 billion in due payments.
Kenya initially hoped to save a further Ksh.13.6 billion in interest suspension from the G20 member of countries.
The National Treasury has so far provided little evidence of ring-fencing proceeds from the DSSI program in spite of the initiative requiring countries to deploy savings to specific programs to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
