Senators, yesterday, failed to take definite stand on whether or not to support the planned removal of subsidy on petroleum products. This division in the Upper House is coming a week after the House of Representatives told the presidency to kill the plan.
The Senate, as a way out, tasked its Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation, and National Planning to look into the proposal as well as the consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and revert to it within one week.??
Meanwhile, the Senate President, David Mark has decried the budgeting process and said that the essence of the bill going into committee, is for it to look at the proposals holistically and added that the yearly budget system has failed to address the problem of development in the country.
“I will like to sum up by saying that I think the paper is just a framework at this stage and for all intents and purposes, the figures are preliminary figures, they are not fixed. There is no doubt that a paper of this nature will capture everything, there will be omissions and by going to the committee, the essence is for the committee to take a better look at the details of the paper that has been submitted to us.
“It is based on the four year rolling plan or budgetary plan. I think it is agreed that this yearly budgeting system has not worked, if we have a rolling plan,it is easier for us to see at a glance what we are looking at for the next four years.