Curb wastage, graft to justify tax collection

Even as the Treasury Department unveils a raft of taxes for the new budget, there is an urgent need to reduce waste of state resources and corruption.

Workers and businesses in Kenya’s soft economy are running out of capacity to absorb additional fees and taxes.

New taxes and fees will burden merchants who have raised concerns about deteriorating business conditions with additional operating costs.

This could lead to job cuts and freeze employment plans, which would be a blow to the more than 1 million young people who graduate from universities and colleges annually.

Inflation also wiped out a 5.6 percent increase in salaries for private workers last year, making it the third year in a row that wage increases lagged behind the rise in the cost of living. This underscores the burden that workers will face with additional taxes.

We appreciate that the Treasury Department requires additional revenue to relieve the monetary pressure caused by the massive interest payments.

President William Ruto has vowed to lift millions out of poverty, but he faces challenges from a rising cost of living and mounting debt repayments, which have narrowed the state’s fiscal space.

We urge the state to crack down on waste and corruption. The lack of punitive action against the perpetrators of theft means that the perpetrators always get away with dipping their fingers in the cookie jar.

The country needs to make good on its pledge to cut non-essential expenses, such as foreign travel, and hospitality, as well as stop setting up offices that increase spending but add little or no value to taxpayers.

Painfully, the misuse of taxpayers’ money comes as the Treasury Department struggles to secure funds for important projects like building roads and outfitting hospitals with drugs and diagnostic tools.

And this eggs on thieving public servants to continue to fatten their pockets while service delivery continues to deteriorate.

Kenya has a history of multi-billion shillings corruption scandals that have failed to lead to high-profile convictions. This must change.