Government has released a total of Shs 5.8 trillion for quarter two expenditure. This represents 25.5 per cent the approved Budget (excluding External Financing, Appropriation in Aid and Public Debt).
According to Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, the release for quarter two FY 2021/22 has prioritised expenditure in; Health and Social Protection, Agriculture and Industry, Governance and URA, as well as Judiciary and Legislation.
In Health Institutions and Social Protection, Shs294.69 billion has been allocated and the funding is mainly to cater for: National Medical Stores (Shs120.73 billion including essential medicines; Ministry of Health (Shs50.20 billion); Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Dev (Shs42.45 billion) including SAGE (Shs32.73 billion); and Referral Hospitals(Shs34.8 billion).
Shs184.75 billion has been allocated to Agriculture and Industry. The funding is mainly to cater for: MAAIF (Shs36.4 billion); Min.of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Shs35.6 billion), NAADs (Shs31.43 billion); Uganda Coffee Development Authority (Shs22.8 billion) NARO (Shs22.1 billion and NAGRIC (Shs19.8 billion).
Governance, Revenue Collection has been allocated Shs437.10 billion and funding is mainly to cater for: MoFPED (Shs254.9 billion including the funding for support to SMEs and capitalisation of UDB. URA (Shs82.1 billion) and National Citizenship and Immigration Control (Shs28.9 billion).
Judiciary, Legislature, EC, Missions abroad – Shs256.8 billion. The funding is mainly to cater for: Parliament (Shs140 billion. Judiciary Shs74 billion and Electoral Commission (Shs37.4 billion).
Under infrastructure, the key releases were made to UNRA (Ushs303 billion), Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (Ushs68.81 billion), Ministry of Works and Transport (Shs43 billion) and Ministry of Water and Environment (Ushs 170 billion) to cater for cater for accumulated certificates.
According to the ministry, performance so far, this financial year indicates that the economy has continued on its recovery path following the partial reopening of the economy as shown by high frequency indicators of economic activity.
The exchange rate has remained relatively stable. However, the shilling has been appreciating, averaging 3.530.6/USD in September due to increased foreign exchange inflows.
Inflation has remained low and stable. Headline and core inflation averaged 2.3 percent and 3.1 percent respectively for the last 12 months to September 2021. However, inflation is expected to gradually rise through 2021, but is projected to remain below the 5 percent target.
Ramathan Ggoobi said government will continue to provide support to the private sector through interventions like the Small Business Recovery Fund to ensure continued recovery. This Financial year the economy is projected to grow at 3.8 percent above the outturn of 3.4 percent registered in FY 2020/21.
The total Budget excluding debt, external financing amounts to Shs22.76 trillion, and to-date Shs12.074 trillion has been released which amounts to 53 percent of the Approved Budget. Shs5.6 trillion was released in the first quarter.
