BUDGET 2020/Kazo churches to pay sh100,000 tax

By Stephen Nuwagira

Kazo district's budget for the 2020/2021 is focused on access to health services, according to the district leadership.

Issa Makumbi, the secretary for finance, told the special council session that the sh15.2b will also look at revenue collection and ease access to quality education, to boost skills and human capital development.

Of the total sh15.2b target revenue, only sh834.3m is expected to come from the local revenue and the rest will be Government transfers and sh33.6m will be donor funding.

Makumbi, however, informed the council that next year's proposed budget is down by 7.6%, because Kazo will not receive the transitional fund it received last year.

This was the district's first budget as the current one was drafted and passed by Kiruhura district before Kazo became an independent district on July 1, 2019.

Key sector allocations

The education sector was allocated sh6.730b, with health at sh2.598b, sh2.282b will go to administration while sh626.28m will cater for roads and engineering and sh636.15m for the water department.

Churches to pay sh100,000 tax

The council also agreed to charge a sh100,000 tax on churches, sh150,000 on each lorry carrying charcoal, a move councillors Anna Agaba and Seezi Byaruhanga said would discourage charcoal burning and save the disappearing forest cover in the district.

They said people were coming from other districts to cut down trees in Kazo, but had not been paying appropriate taxes. Nkungu and Buremba are the most affected sub-counties, council heard.

The district chairperson who is also the speaker, Jackson Mutegyereize Kanaara, called on councillors to join efforts aimed at mobilising more revenues to facilitate the attainment of the district's development goals.

Kazo Constituency MP Gordon Bafaki pledged to ensure that whatever money and projects are budgeted for at the national level reaches the district.