Alors même que le Ministre des finances, Njeru Githae, a annoncé des mesures d’austérité fiscale – dont une taxe de 10% sur toutes les transaction financières effectuées sur téléphone portable ainsi que sur tous les virements bancaires – pour combler les 40 milliards de shillings devant être alloués au paiement/augmentation de salair des fonctionnaires de l’éducation et des médecins, tous deux en grève depuis pas mal de semaines…

… Et alors même que la Commission électorale a annoncé le calendrier des élections de 2013 (le premier tour le 4 mars 2013, et le deuxième tour le 11 avril 2013)…

… Et bien, les députés – qui pensent déjà au départ – ont approuvé vendredi soir, à la dernière minute et en catimini, un texte leur donnant droit à un bonus lorsqu’ils quitteront le gouvernement en 2013. Un bonus d’au moins 9,3 millions de shillings (110 000 USD) par député en fonction depuis 2008.  Et comme il y a 222 députés, ce texte adopté à l’unanimité coûtera plus de 2 milliards de shillings !

Du coup, Gado, le célèbre cartooniste de Nation a publié un dessin en ligne (et pas dans le journal)… Sans commentaire !! D’ailleurs, il n’est resté en ligne que quelques minutes et vous ne trouverez plus ce dessin aujourd’hui (sauf ici) !

 Comme si tirer tout le lait de la vache n’était pas assez…

Rassurez-vous, les journaux du samedi ont tout de même rapporté l’affaire… et ce malgré le fait que l’amendement ait été approuvé à la dernière minute (à 20h40 du soir) et que les montants aient été modifiés sur papier à la dernière seconde (lire l’article en anglais ci-dessous).

Et comme nous sommes en pleine campagne présidentielle, les candidats ont tous appelé aujourd’hui à rejetter ce texte.

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By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, October 5 2012 at 23:30

In Summary

Sweetheart package gives each of the 222 MPs Sh9.3m in send-off perks as Kenyans prepare to pay higher taxes to foot bill

MPs have secretly added a Sh2.1 billion severance pay to their already huge package.

The higher perks, approved on Thursday night, however came about as Finance Minister Njeru Githae increased taxes to raise the money required to meet public servants’ demands for better salaries.

In the last-minute changes introduced in Parliament on Thursday night, each of the 222 MPs and House Speaker Kenneth Marende will take home a minimum package of Sh9.3 million on January 15 next year when their term expires.

Meanwhile, a 10 per cent Excise duty will now be levied on mobile money transfers such as M-Pesa, making the services more expensive. The services are run by banks, money transfer agencies and mobile phone companies.

The minister also raised taxes on beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks to Sh70 per litre – or 50 per cent of the ex-factory price – and on raw hides and skins destined for foreign markets in a bid to revive and improve local tanneries.

Mr Githae also has his eye on the money made in the data market – through cable, the Internet, fibre-optic and satellite – seeking to tax “gains or profits made from the business of transmitting messages”.

The mining industry will also pay more taxes after the House allowed Kenya Revenue Authority to tax proceeds from the sale of property or shares, more so for oil companies, or other firms involved in mining or mineral prospecting.

The vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC), Mr Adan Keynan, sneaked in the amendments, as approved by the Finance minister, just moments before the House concluded putting final touches on the Finance Bill 2012.

Once assented to, the Finance Bill grants the taxman the licence to collect taxes in order to meet the government’s revenue targets as prescribed in the annual national budget.

Tellingly, the amendment was not in the Order Paper like the ones by the minister on raising taxes, and not all MPs had access to it even after it was tabled. There was no debate on the clause; it was just approved, unanimously.

The change will see the Treasury calculate the “severance allowance” at 31 per cent of MPs’ pay, including their hefty tax-free perks. The computation will be based on their basic pay of Sh200,000 and all allowances – except sitting allowance – amounting to Sh651,000.

The perks include house allowance, extraneous duty allowance, transport allowance, entertainment allowance, vehicle fixed cost allowance and constituency allowance. Each of the 12 nominated MPs also get an allowance; so do the two ex-officio members — the Speaker and the Attorney-General.

Second time in six months

This is the second time in less than six months that the lawmakers have raided the public coffers to line their pockets as they scrounge around in their brazen bid to raise money for the political campaigns ahead of the General Election.

On April 19, again in at dusk, they changed the law to raise the severance package – hitherto called “the winding-up allowance” – from Sh1.5 million to Sh3.72 million per MP. And just as then, this week’s Sh5.6 million addition was made through the Finance Bill.

The mischief of raising their perks through the Finance Bill ensures that MPs can do it at the eleventh hour, quietly, and since it has to do with taxes it is guaranteed that the President will have no option but to assent to it.

The law, once enacted, will see the MPs paid at 31 per cent of their Sh200,000 basic pay for every year in service until August 26, 2010 when the Constitution was promulgated. From then until the end of their term on January 15, 2013, the calculation will be based on a gross pay of Sh851,000.
Not surprisingly, the lawmakers are unbowed by the legal requirement to have the pay issue handled by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

MPs award themselves Sh2bn bonus in secret deal – Politics – nation.co.ke