Government increases budget again
Minister of state for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr Henry Musasizi
What you need to know:
- Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among who presided over the Wednesday sitting referred the corrigenda to the Budget Committee for scrutiny and called on lawmakers to actively participate in the budgeting process.
- Parliament must consider and approve the annual budget by May 31, pending its presentation to the nation by the President or his appointed representative on June 14
Government has revised the 2023/2024 financial year budget to Shs52 trillion, representing a Shs2 trillion increase from the original draft estimates.
This also means Shs4 trillion increase from the approved budget for the current financial year.
Estimates for the coming financial year have grown from Shs49.9t in December 2022 to Shs51t in March.
Government tables Shs49.9t budget
The adjustments are detailed in the corrigenda to the budget that was tabled by the Minister of state for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr Henry Musasizi on Wednesday.
The corrigenda provides correction of errors and omissions under the draft budget that was tabled in March.
Beneficiaries of increased allocations under the new budget include the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities has received an additional Shs33.3 billion as excess non-tax revenue collected in 2021/2022 financial year.
These funds are expected to cater for construction of staff accommodation, equipment for surveillance, an electric fence, and maintenance as well as rhino translocation to various national parks, according to reports by Parliament.
Parliament further reported that external financing allocation to projects has been adjusted to Shs8 billion from Shs7.4 billion provided in the previous budget.
Treasury operations, non-tax revenue and local revenue have also been adjusted upwards.
But Kira Municipality MP, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda expressed concern over the late presentation of the new budget figures, which leaves the legislators with little time to scrutinize the figures.
“It has become a practice for the government to present documents relating to the budget at the last minute. When you [Speaker] announces that on Tuesday we will supply, they [ministers] come running with the corrigenda making it very difficult for the Committee on Budget to scrutinise because of the time involved,” he said.
Parliament must consider and approve the annual budget by May 31, pending its presentation to the nation by the President or his appointed representative on June 14.
Mr Musasizi explained that the changes resulted from requests by accounting officers, as provided for by the Public Finance Management Act, 2015
“An accounting officer of the vote may at any time, before Parliament considers the estimates of the vote make a correction of an error or omission made in the estimates submitted by the accounting officer in Parliament,” Musasizi said.
Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among who presided over the Wednesday sitting referred the corrigenda to the Budget Committee for scrutiny and called on lawmakers to actively participate in the budgeting process.
“Budgeting process is important to you; this is when you know how much goes to your district and you need to be in this House when they are doing appropriation, which is one of your core roles,” she said
