By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The Parliament of Uganda has Friday May 24, 2019 passed the ever highest budget estimate in Uganda’s economic history at Shs40.5 Trillion.
The Parliamentary budget Committee Chairperson, Amos Lugoloobi said that; “In terms of sectoral allocations, Works and Transport will account for 16.2% with the largest Sectoral allocation of Shs6,406.8 billion, followed by Security at 9.1% of the total Sectoral allocation, ” said “The least allocated sector in the budget is ICT and National Guidance Sector accorded 0.3% of the national budget. The sector with the biggest proposed increment of Shs. 1,620 billion is the Works and Transport Sector,” Lugoloobi added. Originally, the total proposed annual budget for FY 2019/20 that was submitted to Parliament by the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija on March 28 was Shs39.5 trillion. Out of this, Shs27.2tn (69% ) was due for appropriation and Shs12.2tn (31% of the total) is for Statutory Expenditure charged directly on the
Consolidated Fund. However, on May 9, Kasaija submitted Corrigenda to the draft estimates and an addendum to the Corrigenda which revised the total proposed annual budget to Shs40.8 trillion. Out of this Shs27.9 trillion is for appropriation while Shs12.5 trillion is meant for statutory expenditure. Under the same budget, government plans to spend Shs10.6 trillion on its operations, Shs7.7 trillion for development budget and Shs9.4 trillion for external financing. The works and transport sector has been allocated Shs6.4 trillion, education gets Shs3.2 trillion, energy got Shs2.9 trillion, health sector gets Shs2.5 trillion while security has been Shs3.6 trillion. The agricultural sector will get Shs1 trillion, justice and law and order Shs1.6 trillion while the accountability sector is allocated Shs1.9 trillion. Some of the Ministries have received a reduction in their funds and these include; Water and Environment from Shs1.2 trillion to Shs1 trillion, Lands and Housing from Sh202Bn to Shs193Bn, Science and Technology from Shs184Bn to Shs159Bn.
The budget for the next financial year, which will be read by the minister for finance on June 13th, 2019, is expected to be financed through different avenues. Uganda Revenue Authority is expected to collect Shs18 trillion, Shs1.4 trillion will be raised from non-tax revenue, Shs445 billion from Petroleum fund, Shs201 billion from Local Government and Shs8.5 trillion will be from domestic borrowing, while Shs10 trillion will be from external financing.
