Inside gov’t Ksh3.5 trillion 2021/22 spending plan

Kenya’s 2021/22 budget is expected to top Ksh.3.5 trillion with National Treasury divulging details to the spending plans in the 2021 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) published at the end of last week.

The National government is expected gobble up the bulk of spending at Ksh.1.967 trillion to include Ksh.1.9 trillion to the executive (Ministries & State Departments).

Meanwhile Parliament is set to receive a share of Ksh.37.9 billion from the budget kitty while the Judiciary has been allocated Ksh.18 billion in the plan.

Counties shareable revenues from the exchequer meanwhile stand at Ksh.370 billion.

The Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) which represents outstanding government payments has meanwhile been allocated Ksh.1.2 trillion.

This to include Ksh.537.3 billion in interest costs on both domestic and foreign debt, Ksh.132.8 billion in pension costs and Ksh.486.2 billion in debt redemption costs.

A further Ksh.4.2 billion has been allocated to the payment of salaries and allowances of constitutional offices while Ksh.15.5 million has been set aside for miscellaneous services.

New Borrowing

To fund next year’s budget, Treasury expects to raise Ksh.2.03 trillion in revenues to include Ksh.1.78 trillion in ordinary revenues (tax), and Ksh.258.3 billion in Ministerial Appropriation in Aid (A-i-A).

The lesser revenue based funding will leave a Ksh.976 billion fiscal balance to be largely filled through borrowing.

Ksh.46.1 billion of the hole will be plugged through committed grants to leave behind a Ksh.930 billion gap whose fixing will come through borrowing.

Local debt markets are projected to cover the largest share of new borrowing will net domestic financing for the year set at Ksh.662.8 billion.

The balance of Ksh.267.3 billion will cover net foreign financing which includes a Ksh.124.3 billion sovereign bond (Eurobond).

New borrowing during the year is expected to push up Kenya’s debt stock to Ksh.8.6 trillion by June 2022 including Ksh.4.2 trillion in external and Ksh.4.4 trillion in domestic debt.

The greater debt stock is estimated at 69.4 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the period.