Its more pain for teachers and civil servants as the government is set to introduce a new deduction on their payslips starting January should a proposal by Treasury to raise taxes get passed in parliament.
The Treasury led by CS John Mbadi has revisited the rejected Finance Bill 2024 where a number of clauses are set to be reintroduced to help the government raise revenue.
Among the taxes proposed is the Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund which is a statutory deduction to be made on payslips.
All public officers which include teachers and civil servants will be taxed to cater for the fund.
After AON Minet and SHIF teachers will now get a third medical scheme cover called Public Officers Medical Scheme.
The purpose of the Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund shall be to finance the provision of a medical scheme for public officers in addition to the social health insurance benefit package provided under the Social Health Insurance Act.
Its still not clear what percentage of teachers salaries will be chopped off the payslips to cover for the fund.
The National Assembly shall appropriate the amount to be deducted though sources say a two percent deduction has been proposed.
Members of the National Assembly have already agreed to pass the proposal by December to allow its rollout in January next year.
The Treasury has rolled out public participation exercise in November inline with the constitution requirement.
The comments, inputs or memoranda from the general public may be forwarded to the Principal Secretary, National Treasury, P. O. Box 30007-00100, Nairobi.
It can also be hand-delivered to the Office of the Principal Secretary, National Treasury Building, Nairobi, or emailed to ps@treasury.go.ke and copied to jona.wala@treasury.go.ke.
The deadline for submission is 18th November, 2024 at 5.00 p.m.
There shall also be in-person meetings for public consultations on the above Public Finance Management (Public Officers Medical Scheme Fund) Regulations, 2024 as per the schedule below: –
| Stakeholder | Dates for meeting | Time for meeting | |
| 1. | State Department for Public Service | 20th November, 2024 | |
| 2. | Civil Servants Union | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
| 3. | Teacher Service Commission | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
| 4. | Public Service Commission | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
| 5. | Salaries and Remuneration Commission | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
| 6. | Social Health Authority | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
| 7. | Members of the Public | 20th November, 2024 | 10.00 am |
Civil servants may also submit their comments through their Union representatives like Knut and Kuppet.
The invitation letters for the meetings shall be hand-delivered to the registered stakeholders before the date of the meeting.
The venue of the meeting will be The National Treasury 5th floor AGDs Board room as indicated in the invitation letter.