By Oliver Nabukeera.
The Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) has advocated for a transparent and people centered budget rather than introduction of more taxes without new sources of funding. This follows the reading of the 2014/15 budget by the Minister for Finance Maria Kiwanuka last week.
During a post budget analysis meeting held at the CSBAG offices in Kampala on 17th June 2014, it emerged that the poor allocation of funding towards Agriculture will cripple the sector which contributes 70 percent to the Ugandan economy. The discussions further interpreted the poor funding as a political move to make a certain class of people wealthier than others. The sector has been allocated Ushs 400 billion in this current financial year compared to Ushs 394.4 billion in 2013/2014. This represents a 1.4 percent increase.
Speaking during the meeting CSBAG Chairman Julius Kapwepwe said, “Uganda is an agricultural economy and can develop only when agriculture is strengthened. Government should therefore develop tradeoffs so as to boost the sector rather than allocation of vast monies to the national identity card registration and population census.