Revenue deficit forces government to spend less than planned in Feb

Finance minister Matia Kasaija

Kampala. A shortfall in revenue forced government to spend less than projected in February, according to the economic performance report for the period covering February.
The shortfall forced government to cut planned expenditure due to a Shs187.2b deficit.
“Total expenditure during the month [February] was less than anticipated thus outmatching the shortfall in revenues and grants. The underperformance in expenditure is on account of lower externally financed development spending,” said the a report released by the Ministry of Finance early this week.

The shortfalls resulted from deficits in grants whose disbursements did not meet what was expected during the month.
However, domestic revenue collection continued to perform well during the period, registering an above collection target of 2.2 per cent.
A total of Shs1.257 trillion was collected form taxes while Shs38.2b came from non-tax revenue.

Government, according to the report, had planned to spend Shs2.122 trillion during February.
“Government had expected to receive grants worth Shs9b inform of budget support and Shs121.9b inform of project support. However, only Shs57.1b was received in the period,” the report indicates.
The shortfalls, which mainly go to funding development spending, were less than planned which delayed some projects, especially those financed externally.

However, the report indicates that current expenditure, was almost on target as other recurrent items with the exception of interest payments were more or less than planned.
“Interest payments were below what was programmed as at budget time,” said the report.
Tax performance, according the report, was above that planned.

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