In Kampala: BUDGET: How sh12 trillion could be shared

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BUDGET: How sh12 trillion could be shared
Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka at last years budget reading. The health sector is set to see an increase in funding at Thursdays reading.

 Today is Budget Day. Government sources who attended the Monday special cabinet meeting on the budget revealed that the budget to be read will be different from what is contained in the budget framework paper (draft budget).
According to the draft budget for 2013/2014, the budget for security will be increased to sh1045.9b from the sh945.1b which was approved in the ending financial year.
The energy and mineral development sector budget will also be increased from sh1481.8b for the current financial year to sh1762.2b in the forthcoming financial year.
The budget for the health sector will be increased from sh852.2b to sh930.5b but the education budget will be reduced from sh1592.5b which was approved for the current year to sh1555b in the 2013/2014 budget.
The agriculture sector has been allocated sh403.1b, which represents 3.4% of the national budget.
The tourism, trade and industry sector has been reduced from the sh72.5b it got in the current year to sh51.2b in the forthcoming financial year.
The budget for the works and transport sector has continued to take a huge share of the national budget (15.1%), with an allocation of sh1769.7b, which is higher than the sh1650.7b it got in the current year.
The water and environment sector’s budget has been increased to sh382.3b from sh354.1b it got for the ending year.
Public sector management budget also increased from sh1044.5b to sh1121.1b and public administration budget increased from sh238.8b to sh357.3b.
The information and communications technology budget has slightly reduced from sh15.5b to sh15.3b, while the budget for Parliament has remained the same at 235.4b despite previous demands for it to be increased.
The social development budget has reduced from 58b to only 26.3b for the next financial year and the accountability budget has also been reduced from sh580.1b to sh539.8b in the next budget.
The budget for justice/law and order has increased from sh537.6b it got this ending year to sh551.5b.
A special fund of sh20b has been created in the 2013/2014 budget for the restocking programme in Teso, Lango, Acholi and West Nile.
The total budget estimate for the next financial year stands at 12trillion (12,005.4b) out of which sh8, 843.4b is expected to come from domestic revenues, sh49.6b from external support, sh2, 332.6b from project support and sh779.8b from the domestic banking system.
The overall available resources will amount sh11,695.74b. If money from external sources is excluded, the money available for the next financial year is 9,363.09b, from which sh908.5b will be used on interest payment to service our external and domestic debt obligations.
The Government regrets to note that there are many other critical requirements which it has been unable to fund in the 2013/2014 financial year.
These include salary enhancement for teachers, health workers, UPDF and other lower cadre civil servants amounting to sh365b.
Other unfunded priorities include additional requirement for the parliamentary commission amounting to sh43b and extra funding to judiciary amounting to sh20b of which only 10b has been secured.
The financial capacity of Uganda greatly reduced when donors withdrew funding by 93% amounting to sh740b as a protest against the corruption scandals in the Office of the Prime Minister.
That is why in today’s budget, the Government will announce a host of taxes to widen the revenue base to fill the gaps created by the withdrawn donor support.
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