Treasury CS John Mbadi has urged the youth to take their time and understand what is contained in the Finance Bill 2025 before rejecting it.
Mbadi said that the current Finance Bill has been created to make tax systems more efficient and to deal with tax administration.
He was speaking during a public participation forum with youth from different universities and regions on Friday.
“Before muanguke na hii Finance Bill yangu vile mulianguka na ile engine, (before you reject my bill like you rejected the previous one), I want you to take your time and understand what is in it,” Mbadi said.
“What we have done with this Finance Bill is simply to make tax systems more efficient and to deal with the tax administration,” he said.
He said people should know the difference between the budget estimates and the Finance Bill to avoid confusion.
“You will hear many people saying that the price of bread has gone up in the budget. The budget can never increase the cost of bread; what can increase it is the Finance Bill and these are totally different things,” Mbadi said.
Mbadi pointed out that from the demonstrations that happened last year against the Finance Bill, the government took a conscious decision in coming up with the bill.
“We noticed that Kenyans don’t want higher tax rates and that we need a stable, predictable and certain tax regime. Now that informed the preparation of our Finance Bill,” Mbadi said.
While clarifying the purpose of the proposed Finance Bill, Mbadi explained that it does not aim to burden citizens with new taxes.
“This Finance Bill has no major adjustments in tax rates. We are not really using this Bill to raise more revenue in terms of additional or varied tax rates,” he said.