Nairobi, KENYA: Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich says the National Treasury is running short of revenue due to slow down of business activity noting that there was a hitch at the beginning of the financial year because of disbursement schedule which took 5-6months.
Speaking while appearing before the senates budget committee on Wednesday, Rotich and his Principal Secretary Dr. Kamau Thugge said that the challenges are occasioned by the revenue shortfall last year as the budget was done early because of the election.
To remedy the situation, the CS says the Treasury has had discussions with Custom and Domestic departments of KRA to formulate a deficit raise consolidated program with the target of reducing the deficit from 7.2 to 6% in the next financial year.
The Treasury says it is mulling on reducing allocation to county governments as their budgets are on the maximum even as they call for every institution to tighten its belt for tough times ahead.
PS Dr. Thugge said the deficit has implications on the expenditure, and that austerity measures have been implemented in the national government, and appealed to Governors to do follow suit.
He observed that amending the division of revenue bill will be key in reducing allocation to counties saying there is a proposal that allocations for the Counties should be reduced.
