Powerful figures shielding businessmen from paying taxes: DP

Deputy President William Ruto speaks during a leaders' meeting at Njoro, Nakuru County. [DPPS]

Deputy President William Ruto has once again hit out at President Uhuru Kenyatta, saying the government is shielding connected businesspersons from paying taxes.

At a forum with several civil society organisations under the banner Angaza Movement at a Nairobi hotel, Ruto yesterday claimed a cabal of senior government officials was responsible for exempting themselves, their friends and businesses.

He partly blamed Kenya’s inability to meet its revenue targets on non-payment of tax and said automating VAT collection would seal loopholes of fraud.

“There is no reason why we are collecting 3.6 per cent of our GDP… It is possible to collect Sh500 billion at the moment if we just collected all the VAT that we need to collect, and an additional Sh250 billion to Sh300 billion would come from corporate tax,” Dr Ruto told the groups.

He said it was possible to raise the country’s revenues to Sh3 trillion from the Sh1.8 trillion raised in a year. “We must focus on growing a bigger cake – broaden the base of the people paying taxes and ensure everyone pays taxes.”

The UDA leader said such would help reduce borrowing at a time Senate approved raising the debt ceiling to Sh9.4 trillion.

The DP criticised government’s borrowing, chiding Mr Kenyatta over remarks that debt was “good.” 

“If we are going to be spending Sh1.3 trillion paying debt and you don’t think that is serious, there is something wrong somewhere… When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging and figure out a way out of it,” he said, claiming, without evidence, that the government, in which he sits, was borrowing to further political interests.

He championed his bottom-up economic model, which he said intends to improve access to credit for some 2 million unprivileged families.

He said his government would invest Sh30 billion in a revolving fund programme that would invest in the said households to acquire farm inputs. 

“From our calculations, one needs about Sh15,000 to Sh18,000 for farm inputs for one acre,” he said.

Dr Ruto later held a town hall session at Ngong’ Racecourse, meeting small-scale traders, before holding a series of rallies within the capital.