Budget 2021/22: The highlights – LIVE

Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani is presenting his Sh3.6 trillion Budget for the year starting July 1 today.

He will announce tougher tax compliance measures and reviews of laws to raise cash to partly fund the budget.

The 2021-22 financial year’s budget is expected to cement the legacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 10 years in office in a tough economic setting clouded with depressed corporate and household earnings amid uncertainties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here are the highlights:

VACCINES: Government sets aside Sh14.3 billion for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.

PENDING BILLS: Ministries and State agencies have been given up to June 30, 2021, to pay all verified pending bills to ease the cash crunch on small businesses.

PROCUREMENT of ICT services to be decentralised from July 1, 2021, State departments to procure their own equipment.

MORTGAGE: The Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company to issue an infrastructural bond to provide more cash for the cheap loans extended to Kenyans for the purchase of homes.

SMEs: Government allocates an additional Sh2 billion for the Credit Guarantee Scheme. This will be on top of the Sh10 billion that was allocated in the 2020/21 year.

PENSION SCHEMES: A national informal pension scheme targeting the jua kali sector to be set up and rolled out in July 2022. 

Spending priorities

• Economic stimulus programme (includes Kazi Mtaani): Sh23 billion
• Big Four Agenda -health, food security, affordable housing and manufacturing: Sh142.1 billion
• SMEs to ease cash crunch: Sh1.9 billion
• Dongo Kundu special economic zone, as well as Kenanie and Athi River industrial parks: Sh8.3 billion 
• Nairobi Metropolitan Service: Sh27.2 billion
• Agriculture and Food Security: Sh1.97 billion
• Recruitment of health care interns: Sh1.2 billion
• Kenya Wildlife Services to engage community scouts: Sh1 billion
• Construction of SGR Phase II (Nairobi Naivasha): Sh27.2 billion
• Lapsset project: Sh7.5 billion

Education

• Free primary education: Sh12 billion
• Competency Based Curriculum: Sh1 billion
• Hiring of teachers: Sh2.5 billion
• Teacher Service Commission: Sh281.7 billion
• Examinations: Sh4 billion to cater for the examination waiver for the KCSE and KCPE candidates.

Tax measures

Finished iron and steel products to be imported at 25 percent excise duty to protect local manufacturers from cheaper imports.

Manufacture of diapers: inputs duty-free for a further one year. 

Leather and footwear products imports – 25 percent