By its very definition, a budget is a government plan on how it will raise and spend money in a given financial year. The money raising methods are mostly domiciled into the taxation and domestic borrowing and then there is the component of external borrowing and loans. Each method of raising revenue has its advantages and disadvantages and hence countries must make their minds depending on their situation on the right mixes for the same. The challenge of rising public debt and increased cost of living for citizens are a product of many aspects including the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the poor weather and adverse climate change and global warming, in addition to the shocks generated by the advent of COVID -19. Despite these challenges, we must continue with our nation building efforts by paying the taxes and undertaking any other measures to support the theme adopted for the budget as “accelerating economic recovery for improved livelihood”.
The budget statement has focused on ways that can create a stable foundation for growth and development. Governments by their very definitions are about creating an enabling environment for business and private sector to thrive. The World Bank in 1993 developed a policy guideline on enabling markets to work and observed that governments must be pre-occupied with means through which they can reinvigorate the private players to drive economic development. The enabling environment for private sector led growth can be grouped into two broad categories: First is the policy and institutional level that deals with creation of good enabling environment for businesses or what is called investment climate for private players. It includes investments cited in the budget for security, sustaining public sector reforms and expanding the role of the private sector in the economy through use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to finance development projects. The use of PPP frameworks to develop the country is a key policy issue that should be taken up by the private players to generate more jobs and employment opportunities basing what government has done. The second level of enabling environment is market functioning level that is geared towards addressing production and distribution of goods and services. It includes development of critical infrastructure like roads (over 10,500 kms done so far) railway, energy, water, and programmes, investing in ICT and digital infrastructure
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 