Parliament passes 2017/18 budget

Parliament has passed a sh29 trillion National budget for the financial year 2017/18. The Budget is slightly higher by sh3 trillion, compared to the current national budget 2016/17 which is shs26.3trilion.

According to the budget report by the house's committee on budget, adopted on Wednesday by Parliament, out of the sh29 trillion, Sh7.trillion will go towards recurrent budget, sh11.4 trillion towards the development budget and sh9.9 trillion towards statutory expenditure.

The report indicates that the FY2017/18 budget will focus on increasing agriculture production and productivity for food security and strategic exports, enhancing private sector development for promotion and import substitution.

It will also focus on intensifying energy and transport infrastructure development, to lower production costs and completing oil related infrastructure development to enable commercialization and the first oil output in 2020.

In the new financial year, domestic revenues including grants are projected to increase by 18.06%, against the projected revenues of FY 2016/17.

In the budget, sectors like the works and transport sector, ministry of defense, health, and the education, will receive the highest share of the budget. Ends.