Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, TZ present 2015/16 budget

Jun 11, 2015

East African Community member states ministers for finance are set to present budgets for their respective countries later today.


By Vision Reporter

East African Community member states ministers for finance are set to present budgets for their respective countries later today.

Uganda’s finance minister, Matia Kasaija, will present his maiden budget speech to Parliament. Kasaija who was a junior minister took over from Maria Kiwanuka in the March Cabinet reshuffle.

Kasaija’s budget of sh24 trillion for the first time ever, has had the government’s critics up in arms accusing President Yoweri Museveni’s government of pushing the country further and further into debt.

 

Uganda's minister of finance, planning and economic development Matia Kasaija

According to New Times of Rwanda, the country’s finance minister, Claver Gatete, announce the budget for 2015/16, expected to be Rwf1.768 trillion.

The new figure represents a slight increase of Rwf11.9 billion from the Rwf1.762 trillion budget for 2014/15 financial year.
The ministries of Infrastructure and Agriculture are some of the most important sectors, with the former taking the lion’s share of the total national budget, while activities in the latter impact on almost 70 per cent of the country’s rural livelihoods.

Rwanda's finance minister Claver Gatete

Kenya’s Cabinet secretary for National Treasury, Henry Rotich, will present the country’s budget for financial year 2015/16.
Rotich will present a 2.1 trillion Kenyan shillings budget for the financial year 2015/2016.

The budget which is a 17 per cent increase from that of the fiscal year 2014/2015 is expected to strike a balance between support for rapid economic and inclusive growth. The government is anticipating the economy to grow by 7 per cent this year bolstered by low global oil prices and it infrastructure projects.

Kenya’s Cabinet secretary for National Treasury, Henry Rotich

Tanzania’s finance minister, Saada Mkuya, will present a budget  and is expected to come up with concrete measures to deal with all issues that push the cost of living up.

They include the falling shilling, which, along with steadily rising oil prices, is sending pump prices up in the country, the Citizen newspaper has reported.

Increasing prices of food items and the Pay As You Earn (Paye) burden, along with austerity measures the country will take in its endeavour to reduce donor dependency to a 8.4 per cent of the total budget, must also be high on the agenda of issues Mkuya will present in her budget speech today.

Tanzania’s finance minister, Saada Mkuya

Oil prices had fallen to an average of price $50, with a low of $48, between July 2014 and March 2015, but are now hovering around $61, prompting the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) to increase local prices.



 

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