These Are The Biggest Losers In The 2023/24 Budget

The 2023/2024 national budget is out. Read by Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, the Budget carries both goodies and tears. In terms of taxes, there are winners and losers, but the losers are the majority. The more losers, the more the money for the taxman.

Alcohol, Betting, Gaming, and Gambling firms will pay a 15 percent tax on advertising on TV, Newspapers, Billboards, and Radio Stations. In 2020, the value of betting in Kenya was put at 40 million dollars. The sector has been growing with new players joining in.

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Employed Kenyans will have to part with a 1.5 percent housing levy from their basic salary. The percentage was reduced from 3 percent after a public outcry among Kenyans. The government hopes to use the money to build homes for the homeless.

Kenyans earning between 500,000 and 800,000 shillings will be charged Pay As You Earn (PAYE) of 32.5 percent. Those earning over 800,000 shillings per month will pay an income tax of 35 percent. This will affect most CEO in Kenya, especially banks who sometimes earn their salaries in millions of shillings.

At the same time, imported Cement will attract an excise duty of 1.50 shillings per kilogram. According to the National Treasury, the move is to protect local cement manufacturers from cheap imports.

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Those who own digital assets such as Bitcoin will now have to pay 3 percent in terms of transaction tax. Content creators were not let off the hook. They will still pay a withholding tax of 5 percent on all digital content that will be monetized.

This is the first budget under the Kenya Kwanza administration, coming at a time Kenyans are facing a high cost of living that is at an all-time high. Proces of common commodities such as sugar and maize flour are beyond reach for millions of Kenyans.

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