Businessman Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop, famously known as Buzeki, has stated that the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) government is shutting down many small businesses in the country.

In a statement on Saturday, May 31, 2025, Buzeki decried that President William Ruto’s administration is not refunding Value Added Tax (VAT) claims by businesses.

“UDA is obsessed with spending tax money and completely forgets the people/businesses whose tax money was squeezed from. UDA is not refunding VAT claims, and this is shutting down a lot of SMEs,” he stated.

This comes a month after the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) urged the government to create a dedicated fund for VAT refunds to help address the delays facing investors in the country, which continue to cause cash-flow strains and slow down investments.

This is on the back of a low allocation to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to clear VAT refunds, amid a continued rise in pending bills owed to the private sector by both the national and county governments, which, according to KAM, has hit Ksh800 billion.

The Finance Bill 2025

The Finance Bill 2025 has proposed reducing the filing period for Value Added Tax (VAT) refund claims from 24 months to 12 months.

According to the VAT Act (2013)’s Section 17(5)(d), any excess tax or input tax that exceeds output tax must be paid to the registered person if they request a refund within 24 months of the tax’s due date.

Section 32 of the bill, published on Parliament’s website, aims to change this provision through amendments.

This means that the time range for refund applications from the date of the overpayment would be cut in half.

Kenyans may choose to offset overpaid taxes against their existing tax debts and future tax obligations, such as installment taxes and input VAT.

Section 47 of the Tax Procedures Act (TPA) mandates that the taxman must review and resolve applications within 90 days, potentially subjecting them to an audit for further scrutiny.

Further, Part 2(b) states that if the government’s principal revenue collector does not issue a refund within six months of ascertainment, the overpaid tax will automatically be used to offset the applicant’s outstanding tax debts or future tax liabilities.

If tax payments were made in error, refunds are also given; however, the claim must be submitted within a year.