Revenue Bill Signed To Law

President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the Division of Revenue Bill, 2015 and Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2015.

The Division of Revenue Act, 2015 provides for the equitable division of revenue raised nationally between the national and county governments in the 2015/16 Financial Year.

The Act indicates that the total County Allocations in the new financial year will be Ksh 287.04 billion which translates to 37 per cent of the audited revenue.

The Supplementary Appropriation Act, 2015 authorises the release of the sum of Ksh 50.5 billion from the Consolidated Fund for utilisation by the Government in fulfilling its financial obligations for the remaining part of the financial year that ends on June 30th.

The Act indicates the amount each ministry has been allocated for recurrent and development expenditure for the remaining period of the financial year.

The Bills were presented to the President on Thursday evening for his signature by National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi who was accompanied by the Clerk to the National Assembly Justin Bundi and the Solicitor General Njee Muturi.

Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury Henry Rotich and Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge were also present at the event.

Salaries commission allocation slashed 

The stalemate over the Division of Revenue Bill pitting the National Assembly and the Senate is now over after the National Assembly passed the report of the mediation committee now giving counties extra 3.3 billion shillings.

But the senate will have to lose the 1 billion shillings it had been allocated for oversight purposes to bridge the gap.

The national assembly also cut the budget for the Senate, Judiciary, Treasury and Commission on Revenue Allocations.

Counties will finally get an additional 3.3 billion shillings increasing its total allocation for the 2015/2016 financial year to 287 billion shillings.

In what appears to be National Assembly’s conspiracy to deal with institutions which have had an issue with its authority, MPs raided their coffers to raise the extras.

Such institutions include the Judiciary which will also have to part with 800 million shillings, as does the Salaries and Remuneration Commission whose budget has been slashed by up to 200 million shillings.

Treasury, through the human resource reforms, loses 500 million shillings.

The National Treasury will also see its budget chopped by a further 500 million shillings from the defined contributory scheme which falls under it.