Government will this Thursday unveil a 29 trillion shillings budget meant to cover expenditure for the financial year 2017/2018.
The budget themed “Industrialisation for job creation” in line with the government’s vision to increase manufacturing, exports and create jobs for citizens
Finance Minister Hon. Matia Kasaijja will unveil the budget at the Serena Kampala Hotel on Thursday afternoon
Parliament on Wednesday last week passed the 29 trillion budget for the 2017/2018 financial year which is slightly higher than the 26.3 trillion budget passed for 2016/2017
Headed for gloom
Already, there are complaints from civil society that the allocated budget is not aligned to fulfill the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP) and will only make life harder for the ordinary citizens.
According to some experts, allocating just 98 billion for industrialisation and 2.6 billion for interest servicing payments is not sustainable to make an impact.
“With such unfair allocations and the poor debt servicing, we will not be debt sustainable in the coming years” echoed economic experts
URA under pressure
Government is banking on the tax body-Uganda Revenue Authority to raise 15 trillion of the 29 trillion. This means revenue from taxation will fund over half of the budget.
Civil society leaders last week at the Uganda Economics Association pre-budget forum expressed their concern over the budget funding.
“How can you task URA to raise those kinds of resources which will then be spent on mostly non-developmental channels?” they asked
The other funding is expected from domestic borrowing, grants and external credit from donors.
Out of the 29 trillion budget, 7 trillion will go towards recurrent expenditure, 11.4 trillion towards the development budget while statutory expenditure will eat up 9.9 trillion.
