Business

Budget 2021/22: Mombasa residents want tourism, small businesses boosted

Thursday, June 10th, 2021 12:50 | By
Mbui Rumba,a Kongowea resident who runs a Nyama China joint at Karama Market. PHOTO: PD

With Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani set to unveil the new 2021-2022 budget on Thursday afternoon, Mombasa residents hope for a pocket-friendly outcome that will relieve them from the tough economic burden.

Mbui Rumba, a Mombasa resident who runs a Nyama Choma joint in Karama Market in Kongowea, says the new budget should consider the common mwananchi.

“Life has become unbearable. All food products prices went up when the cost of fuel was raised. This has pushed some of us as to the wall and we are hoping that the Budget will focus majorly on common Mwananchi,” Rumba told People Daily.

Andrew Nyaga, a resident of Bombolulu, hopes that the treasury CS Ukur Yattani will not increase taxes since prices of basic commodities are already stretched.

“The common Mwananchi is already struggling. Remember we are still feeling the heat of Covid-19 that left many of our customers unable to purchase our products as before,” Nyaga, who runs a shop in Gathima area of Bombolulu, said.

Similar sentiments were shared by Rukia Abdalla, a vegetable vendor at Kwa Karama market.

Rukia says this year’s budget should be friendly to food products including bread and vegetables whose costs have been recently raised drastically.

“If the cost of bread and other food products including Maize flour can be adjusted in the budget, many families will get relief. My business of selling vegetables has been struggling because many of my customers have inadequate money to buy like before,” Abdalla told People Daily.

Players in the tourism sector are equally eagerly waiting to see how CS Yattani will factor them into this year's budget in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The sector, which contributes about 10 per cent of the gross domestic product GDP, has been shrinking since the onset of Covid-19.

Kenya Coast tourism Association KCTA executive director Julius Owino is anticipating a budget increment to revamp the tourism sector through marketing.

Owino hopes that the sector will get a reasonable allocation to facilitate their operations in the worst-hit sector.

“The industry needs to be revamped, we need a tourism budget to do marketing, uplift the economic status of tourism key establishments as well as to strengthen client confidence. The government needs to be creative to cushion the common man from overtaxing, especially on common goods,” said Owino.

Kenya’s 2021/22 budget is expected to cost Ksh3.5 trillion according to the Treasury’s spending plans in the 2021 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) published in February this year.

More on Business


ADVERTISEMENT

RECOMMENDED STORIES Business


ADVERTISEMENT