Kenya will increase taxes to fund the 2019/2020 budget, finance minister Henry Rotich (photo), announced on June 13, 2019.  

According to the official, the government wants to raise about $364 million of fiscal revenues for its budget in the coming fiscal year. For this purpose, it plans to increase capital gain taxes from 5% to about 12.5%. In addition, vehicle excise duty should be raised by 5% and new taxes raised on gambling activities and electric cars, according to information relayed by Bloomberg.

Recently, to fund his Big four Agenda and mega infrastructure projects, president Uhuru Kenyatta has introduced stringent and unpopular tax measures. In addition, analysts and investors are also worried about the country’s rising debt.

Some observers thought that the country would reduce its expenses but, authorities seem to increase investments while boosting internal revenues collection to fund the budget deficit. For the current fiscal year, this deficit is expected to fall from last year’s 7.4% to 5.6%.

Let’s note that according to the IMF, the country’s economic growth should be 5.8%, down from the 6% recorded in 2018.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou