National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani now wants parliament to raise the country’s debt ceiling from nine to ten trillion shillings.
In a gazette notice Yatani wants parliament to amend the Public Finance Management Regulations of 2015 to increase the debt ceiling by one trillion.
This he says will allow the government room to borrow more to finance the Sh3.33 trillion budget for the 2022/23 financial year.
The request is however expected to meet mixed reaction and also be topic of discussion in the current campaign period. Most of the MPs have castigated the government in the past for borrowing commercial loans that have a higher repayment value compared to concessional loans.
The request by Treasury must however be passed by the National assembly and the Senate to allow the borrowing .
The public debt stood at Sh7.99 trillion last September and was equivalent to 64.2 percent of GDP on net present value terms, higher than the 55 per cent being proposed.
A separate analysis by the Institute of Public Finance-Kenya (IPFK), a think-tank, suggests the nominal debt stock at nearly Sh8.03 trillion was equivalent to 66.2 per cent of GDP.