Parliament has invited Kenyans to submit their views on President William Ruto's Finance Bill by May 20.
The Finance Bill, 2023, stipulates the revenue measures by the government in the next financial year, starting July 1.
In a public notice in the local dailies, National Assembly Clerk Samuel Njoroge said the views can be mailed or hand-delivered to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning.
Last week, the National Treasury submitted the Finance Bill, 2023 to the National Assembly for processing ahead of the 2023/24 budget estimates approval.
The law requires that the government first tables proposals on how it will finance its budget before the estimates are tabled in the house.
The Finance Bill, 2023 proposes a raft of taxes that will have a major impact on Kenya’s digital content creators and owners of platforms that facilitate the trading of digital assets.
The proposal includes a 15 per cent withholding tax on payments related to the monetization of digital content.
There are fears this will significantly impact the thousands of young people who make their living in the digital space.
The Bill also proposes changes to the Employment Act to allow deductions of three per cent from employees’ basic pay to help fund low-cost homes.
The Finance Bill, 2023 is also seeking to introduce a tax on human hair, eyelashes, switches, and artificial nails in a move that will raise the prices of these beauty products whose usage is on the rise.
It also proposes to increase the VAT charged on petroleum products from 8 per cent to 16 per cent.
The proposal could trigger a hike in commodity prices amid the soaring cost of living that is burdening Kenyans.
