Nairobi — Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has advocated for the saving of 'good provisions' in the Finance Bill 2024 through amendments.
Appearing before the National Assembly's appointments committee, Mbadi further emphasised the need 'intensive public participation'.
Mbadi said the Finance Bill 2024 died because of poor communication.
He argued that the legislative house should move away from passing the provision on taxes as an omnibus bill which encompasses several bills and focus on legislating the six bills in the Finance Bill singularly.
The Finance Bill usually amends the Excise Duty, Import Duty, Value Added Tax, Income Tax, Tax Procedures Act, and fees and levies.
"But I believe the good provisions which have been lost by this Bill, which are not contentious, and they're many which can still help grow this country's economy, we can bring them as specific amendments to those Acts with proper public participation," he said.
If approved, Mbadi emphasized that he will seek the advisory of the office of the Attorney General on the matter to ensure the good provisions in the Finance Bill are salvaged so as to spur economic growth.
"These are specific legislations. This House, if I'm approved, should help me to bring these legislations directly, touching on these specific statues. We don't have to have a Finance Bill, but I'll seek guidance from the Attorney General," he noted.
"On the floor of the house,I said that the Finance Bill has good provision but the bad provisions have made the good provision bad," Mbadi added.
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He was speaking on Saturday during his vetting by Parliament's Committee on Appointments where he said there is no lacuna in the law following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill and hence there's no cause for jitters.
"On the Finance Bill that has been lost, I want to tell Kenyans, please don't panic. Let us stop making Kenyans panic. In the 10th and 11th Parliament, Finance Bill used to be passed in September. We used to have three months into the financial year to pass the Finance Bill," he said.
The Nominated MP who made his way into cabinet appointment following President William Ruto's agenda in forming a broad based government following overhaul of his cabinet after public clamor said the major undoing of his predecessor was poor communication.
"Still, we don't have a lacuna..I think the problem we had was that the public felt there was no proper public participation, which we had, but maybe they felt they were not listened to," Mbadi said.
Mbadi went ahead to cite past instances when Parliament would pass the Finance Bill later on in the year, hence reassuring the public that the recent withdrawal does not mean the country is now at a standstill.
"The minister then was allowed by law through the revenue collection order to allow for some interim taxes to be collected, but the bottom-line is that the law could be in place on September 30th. So there is no cause of alarm."
