Govt unveils team to scrutinise budget

The Government has unveiled a team of experts who will help to ensure that the national budget for the 2021/2022 financial year is aligned towards improving the economic welfare of Ugandans.

The presidential advisory committee on budget, chaired by Kachumbala MP Jacob Isiagi Opolot, was launched yesterday by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda.

Rugunda asked the team to help the Government in ensuring resources for the 2021/2022 are allocated to necessary interventions for improving the lives of Ugandans.

He advised the team to ensure the next national budget is aligned to the priorities identified in the National Development Plan III (NDP III).

"Help us identify areas which can boost production and ensure that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) manifesto and presidential pledges are incorporated in the national budget by allocating resources among identified priorities. Infrastructure development, improving productivity and strengthening the private sector remain some of our key priorities," Rugunda explained.

During the same event, the planning state minister, David Bahati, revealed that the Government has set the budget for the next financial year (2021/2022) at sh40.7 trillion.

Bahati explained that out of the sh40.7 trillion, the Government expects to get sh21 trillion from domestic tax revenue and the balance from internal and external borrowing.

The minister did not explain why the 2021/2022 budget is smaller than that of the current financial year which, with the inclusion of supplementary budgets, has already reached sh51 trillion.

However, disasters such as the coronavirus pandemic and locust invasions have increased public expenditure this year.

Bahati said with a rapidly growing public debt, the Government will need to devise more ways of increasing the tax to GDP ratio (generating more tax revenue) to be able to keep the situation in control.

 He expressed disappointment that some of the taxes the Government had proposed to raise more revenue like rental taxes were rejected by Parliament.

Bahati also informed the participants that as part of measures to enable economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has earmarked sh1 trillion through the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) for availing affordable credit to local manufacturing companies, of which sh445b has already been released.

Government Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa, who co-ordinated the event, asked the committee to ensure that in their deliberations for the 2021/2022 budget, they are guided by the 23 strategic guidelines issued by President Yoweri Museveni, which are meant to guide government entities in pursuing the realisation of the middle-income status for the country.

Nankabirwa said the committee is expected to submit their report to the President before the end of November.

The Public Finance Management Act requires the Executive to present to Parliament the draft national budget technically known as the Budget Framework Paper for the following financial year before the end of December.

Amos Lugoloobi, the chairman of the parliamentary budget committee, said: "We need to align the budget to the National Development Plan. This has been a problem for many years and, therefore, the implementation of the national development plans has been problematic. That is why we have not been able to achieve a double-digit growth we have been yearning for over the years. We need to begin seriously implementing what is prioritised in the national development plan."

Syda Bumba, the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on the national economy, said whereas the decision to allocate sh1 trillion to UDB is commendable, the Government ought to come up with special funds for helping small-scale enterprises which cannot access the UDB funds.