Kasaija Revises 2021/2022 Budget Twice in one Week, adds More UGX3 Trillion

The Ministry of Finance has returned to Parliament with additional estimates of the Budget of the Financial Year 2021/2021 being processed ahead of its expected approval at the end of this month.

Early in the week, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija had presented before the Budget Committee of Parliament a revised figure of UGX41.3 trillion signifying a downward revision of UGX4.36 from the UGX45.66 trillion in the Budget Framework Paper that was approved in January.

During that meeting, Kasaija attributed the downward revision of the budget to the increase in the projection for domestic revenues, the UGX200b to be withdrawn from the Petroleum Fund, and reduction in external financing.

However, on Thursday, Kasaija tabled a budget corrigenda on the floor of Parliament implying that new sources of financing had been identified.

Speaking to CEO East Africa Magazine on the sidelines of the budget seminar with the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association (UPPA) at the Hotel African this afternoon, Kenneth Mugambe, the Director Budget in the Ministry of Finance elaborated on the corrigenda.

Mugambe said the revised budget estimates have raised to UGX44.6 trillion indicating the government has realized another UGX3 trillion to spend.

“The budget is a process. So, until that process is appropriated by Parliament, you are bound to see changes in it. Initially what we did was an estimate of what we thought were the requirements but of course as we go through different stages of budget preparation, the engagements are at Executive level and the Executive engages Parliament,” Mugambe said.

He revealed that in the additional estimates, the government has secured UGX500b for the Ministry of Health to procure more doses of Covid-19 vaccines as it targets giving a jab to more Ugandans.

Source of funding

Asked about the source of the additional funding, Mugambe said that the talks between the government and external lenders materialized after the previous revisions.

“The vaccine money was not in the UGX41trillion, we have now included the UGX500B. But also we have re-examined our levels of absorption of the money which we borrow. Initially we were a bit conservative in terms of what we thought we will not be able to absorb.  But now after engaging all the different actors including the lenders, we have come to a realistic figure” he added.

The additional UGX3 trillion implies that the external financing through loans in the next financial year will increase from UGX3.98 trillion to UGX6.98 trillion. The approved estimated funding from external debt in the Budget Framework Paper was UGX8.57 trillion.

Domestic financing of the budget has remained at the earlier estimated UGX8.54 trillion which will be obtained from commercial banks through treasury bonds and treasury bills.

Also revised is the whopping UGX7.72 trillion allocation to the governance and security sector which had attracted mixed reaction from the MPs. The documents seen by this website indicate that security whose budget has been increasing will be UGX6.9 trillion and that of Human Capital Development has instead taken the lion’s share by rising from the previous allocation of UGX6.83 trillion to UGX7.5 trillion.

The Integrated Transport Infrastructure budget has risen from the initial allocation of UGX3.98 trillion to now UGX5 trillion, while that of the Agriculture sector is now UGX1.6 trillion up from UGX1.4 trillion as earlier indicated.

Other sectoral allocations

Regional Development                                            UGX1.24 trillion

Sustainable Energy Development                              UGX1.15 trillion

Devt plan implementation                                        UGX1.1o trillion

Parliament                                                             UGX831.9 billion

Climate change and Natural Resources                    UGX668.46 billion

Private Sector Development                                      UGX587.87 billion

Judiciary                                                                 UGX373 billion

Innovation and Technology                                        UGX344.33 billion

Public Sector Transformation                                     UGX325.84 billion

Urbanisation and Housing                                        UGX312.85 billion

Tourism Development                                               UGX178.91 billion

Digital Transformation                                             UGX134.98 billion

Devt of Petroleum resources                                      UGX106.36 billion

Community Mindset Change                                     UGX56.91 billion

Manufacturing                                                        UGX54.40 billion

Mineral Development                                               UGX48.98 billion