Scroll to the bottom of the page to relive how the sh48.1 trillion 2022/23 national budget that was read on Tuesday, at Kololo Independence Grounds.

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16:45: With anthems sung, and guests departing, that is a wrap, but we'll leave you with some more pictures from Kololo.

16:40 THE END: Speaker Among adjourns the house to July 5 and that is the end of today's event.

16:35 FUEL: President Museveni concludes his remarks by saying that the issue of fuel prices will not be solved when Uganda finally starts producing crude oil because the country has to conform to global prices. He says the solution to combating high fuel prices is investing in railway transport.

16:32 ENVIRONMENT: The President insists that encroachers on swamps and other water catchment areas should leave those places unconditionally. The President notes that food security is tied to the well-being of the environment.

16:28 AGRICULTURE: "As long as we have food, there is no problem we can't solve," the President says. He adds that the country has the capacity to feed itself and that the only problem that will be difficult to solve will be a wheat shortage.

16:05: The President starts off by listing a multitude of infrastructure projects that the government has financed on its own including roads and bridges.

16:01: Speaker Anita Among has now invited President Yoweri Museveni to deliver his remarks. 

15:58 CONCLUSION: The minister concludes his speech with a call to all leaders and Ugandans ― especially women ― to ensure that the resources are effectively used to bring about the desired change. He adds that the budget for the next financial year presents a set of strategic choices and the government’s commitment to stimulate economic recovery, enhance productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, and most importantly wealth creation and jobs for the ordinary Ugandans.

15:55 DEBT: Kasaija also notes that as of the end of December 2021, Uganda’s total public debt stock stood at sh73.5trillion, of which external debt amounted to sh45.72trillion and domestic debt amounted to sh27.77trillion. This represents a nominal debt to GDP ratio of 49.7%. He indicates that government aims to reduce the level of domestic borrowing over the medium term to an average of 2.2% of GDP per year. This ratio will be reduced further to a policy target of 1.0% of GDP over the long term.

15:53 FINANCING: Kasaija reiterates that the 2022/23 budget priorities will be financed from the following sources:

• Enhanced domestic revenue mobilisation;
• External financing in the form of loans and grants from evelopment partners and private creditors; and
• Public-Private Partnerships that mobilise private sector financing for public projects.

15:49 SALARIES: The minister announces that the salaries of medical workers, scientists, and science teachers have been enhanced by sh495billion and that this is in addition to incentivising scientists, something that will also help to improve the functionality of education and health facilities by addressing absenteeism and low morale of personnel. This gets applauded by the dignitaries.

15:45 ELECTRICITY: The national electricity access today stands at 57%, of which, 19% is on the main national grid and 38% is off-grid, including solar power and Uganda’s total electricity generation capacity increased from 1,268 megawatts. The minister says the 600 megawatts Karuma Hydro Plant will be fully available in June 2023.

15:40 TRANSPORT: Sh4.3 trillion in the next financial year has been budgeted for transport infrastructure development and maintenance that will see the construction of 400 kilometres equivalent of roads to bitumen standards, rehabilitation/reconstruction of 200 kilometres equivalent, and construction of 30 bridges on the national roads network. The minister also announces that Uganda Airlines will commence flights to London and China.

15:34 INNOVATION: The Minister notes that the government has allocated sh274.4bn towards advancing innovation and technological development. Also, he announces that in September this year, Uganda will launch into the lower earth orbit its first-ever satellite in collaboration with NASA.

14:32 EDUCATION: Kasaija says that during the COVID-19-induced lockdown period, many teachers abandoned the profession, and classrooms got dilapidated in several institutions. Priority will be put on improving the quality of education to enhance learning outcomes.

He adds that among other priorities, the government is going to address staffing gaps in primary and secondary schools, training of teachers and instructors on the new abridged curriculum, and the lower secondary curriculum will be rolled out.

14:15 TOURISM: For the financial year 2022/23, the government has allocated sh194.65 billion to undertake activities like investment in ongoing product development and tourism-related infrastructure, increasing access to tourism recovery financing, and intensifying domestic tourism and specialised tourism promotions and campaigns.

15:06 SECURITY: Kasaija says good governance ensures effective and expansive delivery of services to all citizens within a conducive and peaceful environment and that the interventions in the new financial year will include hastening the rollout and implementation of the CCTV project to identify black spots and other parts of the country.

14:59 REVENUE: According to the minister, in the financial year 2022/23 and the medium term, resources will be obtained from domestic sources such as tax and non-tax revenue, as well as domestic borrowing, and external sources such as budget support grants and loans, as well as project support grants, concessional and non-concessional loans.

14:54 FISCAL STRATEGY: Minister Kasaija says the fiscal strategy for the financial year 2022/23 and the medium term is to pursue growth-friendly fiscal consolidation to preserve fiscal and debt sustainability.

14:49 REVENUE: Minister Kasaija says growth in revenue has been projected taking into account the projected growth of the economy as a result of full reopening of all sectors that generate economic output, and repurposing of the budget to focus on strategic areas and investments in oil and gas. In addition, the projection takes into account the continuous improvement in the efficiency of tax administration to enforce taxpayer compliance.

14:42 FOCUS: Finance minister Matia lists the three key issues that the government is going to focus on in the medium and short term as follows:

• Kickstarting the process of transforming from a subsistence economy to a money economy
• Recovery from the impact of COVID-19
• Protecting households from rising prices of food, fuel and other household items using prudent economic policies

14:40: ECONOMIC PRESSURES: The minister notes that the global economy has changed with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic severely impeding economic activity and further compounded by the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine. These have combined to disrupt global supply chains, drive inflation and rising food insecurity, among others.

Kasaija says the size of our economy is projected to expand to sh162.1 trillion for the financial year ending 30th June 2022. He adds that economic activity has been more buoyant at the growth rate of 4.6% this financial year up from 3.5 percent of last year. This shows that the economy is on a path to full recovery from the COVID-19 disruptions.

14:38 MOMENT OF SILENCE: Minister Matia Kasaija starts by requesting the dignitaries to observe a moment of silence in honour of the late Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah.

14:31 UNDERWAY: Speaker of Parliament starts the session by fulfilling several legal requirements before making a call to officers in the various government entities to ensure that funds are accounted for and put to proper use.

14:13 NDP III: The 2022/2023 budget will mark the third financial year of implementing the National Development Plan Three (NDP III). It is anticipated that at the end of it, 60% of the targets in NDP III will have been realised. One of the key NDP III targets is to increase the per capita income (average amount of money earned by every Ugandan) from the current $879 (sh3.2m) to $1300 (sh4.8m) by 2025.

14:11 ARRIVAL: President Yoweri Museveni has arrived at Kololo Independence Grounds, the venue of Parliament's sitting today. The session will get underway shortly.

14:05 ANY TIME NOW: The finance ministry tweeted that 30 minutes ago.

14:01 FUEL: 20 years ago, in the 2002/03 budget, the government raised taxes on petrol by sh30, from sh580 per litre to sh610 per litre. Today, the current tax on each litre is sh1,450.

13:58 ALARM: In their statements on the national budget for the next financial year, opposition leaders in Parliament are concerned that increasingly, the biggest portion of the national budget is going to interest and debt payment, which leaves limited resources for service delivery.

Mathias Mpuuga the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.

13:55 DEBT PAYMENT: The biggest portion (sh17 trillion), which is 35.3% of the total national budget, is earmarked for interest and debt payment. According to reports from the finance ministry, the interest and debt payment budget increased from sh8.5 trillion in the 2017/2018 financial year to sh15.1 trillion in the 2021/2022 financial year. In their statements on the national budget for the next financial year, opposition leaders in Parliament are concerned that increasingly, the biggest portion of the national budget is going to interest and debt payment, which leaves limited resources for service delivery.

13:52 ARRIVALS

13:49 A LOOK BACK: The 2021/22 national budget of sh44.77 trillion shillings was approved by Parliament last May with a drop of sh714b that was attributed to the decrease in external financing for project support amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

13:44 EMPOWERMENT FUNDS: Another sh20b is for co-operatives, sh120b for the elderly persons, sh50b for Agriculture Credit Facility, sh48.7b to Uganda Development Corporation for the establishment of factories, sh34b for Women Entrepreneurship Programme and sh85b for Uganda Development Bank (UDB).

13:39 COFFEE: Other economic empowerment funds in the budget include sh30b to Uganda Coffee Development Authority for the distribution of free coffee seedlings and sh30b for cattle restocking in Lango, Acholi and Teso sub-regions.

13:35 EMYOOGA: The Government has also allocated an additional sh100b towards the Emyooga programme to continue giving out funds to SACCOS, especially in urban areas or groups of people involved in similar economic activities. The initiative is centred on various 18 categories/enterprises/Emyooga, covering the majority of the hitherto, financially excluded Ugandans engaged in similar specialised enterprise categories. These include market vendors, welders, taxi drivers, carpenters, bodabodas, women and performing artistes.

13:32 ARRIVALS

13:29 PARISH DEVELOPMENT MODEL: Through PDM, the Government will be investing in organised groups such as SACCOS and co-operatives, which are involved in agricultural production at the parish level. A total of sh72.7b has been allocated to the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) to give low-cost credit to SACCOS. In its reallocations in the budget, Parliament gave an extra sh35b to MSC to give out grants/donations to the beginning and struggling SACCOS.

Tractors that were given to farmers in Bukedi sub-region under the Parish Development Model.

13:27: ARRIVALS

13:25 SACCOS: The finance ministry indicates that the 2022/2023 national budget theme [13:01] is derived from the NDP III theme of ‘increased household incomes and improved quality of life of Ugandans’. As a result, the Government has earmarked a total of sh1,711b as wealth creation funds through various programmes. The main vehicle for improving household incomes (wealth creation) in the 2022/2023 national budget is the Parish Development Model (PDM), which has been allocated sh1.059 trillion.

13:20 BIG PLAYERS: Other programmes that have received big portions of the national budget include governance and security (sh7 trillion), integrated transport infrastructure (sh4.1 trillion), energy development (sh2.5 trillion) and agro-industrialisation (sh1.2 trillion).

13:18 LION’S SHARE: The Human Capital Development Programme, which comprises the education and health sectors has had its budget increased from sh7.5 trillion, allocated in the current financial year, to sh8.7 trillion in the budget for the next financial year. This is mainly because of the sh495b provided for increasing salaries for medical workers and other scientists, including science teachers.

13:09 PROJECTIONS: The government anticipates generating sh25.7 trillion from revenue collections and the remaining sh22.4 trillion will come from internal and external borrowing. This comes against the backdrop of sh3 trillion and sh2 trillion revenue shortfalls the Government recorded in the financial years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 respectively, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the current financial year, which ends on June 30, the shortfall is estimated in the range of sh900b.

John Rujoki Musinguzi the Uganda Revenue Authority commissioner general.

13:01 THEME: Finance minister Matia Kasaija is scheduled to read the sh48.1 trillion budget at the function that will be hosted at the Kololo Independence Grounds. According to documents from the finance ministry, the theme for the 2022/2023 national budget is; Full monetisation of Ugandan economy through commercial agriculture, industrialisation, expanding and broadening services and digital transformation.

12:55 Good afternoon and welcome to New Vision’s coverage of today’s reading of the national budget for the financial year 2022/23.