A parliamentary caucus has proposed a raft of radical reforms to inject realism and fiscal discipline in the budgeting process while ensuring that the national debt remains at sustainable levels.
The need to enhance the independence of the national debt office and the strengthening of budget implementation monitoring and evaluation framework, as well as the execution of house resolutions, is also being rooted for.
Speaking during a two-day stakeholders engagement forum in Mombasa County over the weekend, the caucus chaired by the Kiambu town legislator, Jude Njomo, called upon the National Treasury to ensure that policies geared towards post-COVID-19 recovery are cascaded all the way to the lowest level possible in the forthcoming budget.
Among other measures adopted by the forum include the review of the double taxation menace arising from multiple cess charges across counties and the need to formulate policies and laws limiting participation by foreigners (outside the East African Community) in small-scale trade.
Participants, however, decried the current harsh business environment for medium and small scale traders and the current trend by the ministry of Trade and Industrialization to only support big manufacturers and entrepreneurs at the expense of their counterpart small micro-entrepreneurs despite the latter’s crucial place in solving the youth unemployment puzzle.
They urged the government to closely collaborate with the chamber of commerce to support micro and small enterprises to make recovery from the economic vagaries of the covid-19 pandemic.
