The top technical team of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is on a three-day retreat to review the budget for FY 2024/25, re-prioritize expenditure allocations and ensure that all critical interventions of government are fully catered for under the 20 NDP III programmes.
The government of Uganda adopted a strategy to grow the economy ten-fold over the medium term effective FY2024/25.
Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary, in his opening remarks at the retreat, said the ministry is going to use evidence-based analysis to inform allocative efficiency.
The Finance Ministry is implementing the fiscal consolidation strategy to ensure that the budget is rationalised and the available resources are efficiently allocated to finance the critical needs of the government.
Fiscal consolidation entails stepping up domestic revenue mobilisation, continued rationalisation for improved allocative efficiency and controlled borrowing to ensure long term debt sustainability.
Parliament on January 30 gave a nod to the Budget Framework Paper, approving the Shs52.7 trillion budget for Financial Year 2024/2025.
A total of Shs30.9 trillion, which is 59 percent of the budget, will go to non-discretionary expenditure, which includes salaries and debt repayment. Nearly Shs17 trillion has been budgeted for debt repayment. A total of Shs200 billion has been allocated for domestic arrears, Shs1.3 trillion for domestic debt repayment while Shs7.6 trillion will go to interest payments.
Going by the Programme based budgeting, human capital development, governance and security, and integrated transport infrastructure and services take the lion’s share of Shs9.3 trillion, Shs7.4 trillion and Shs5.8 trillion, respectively.
Sustainable petroleum development will take Shs1.3 trillion, private sector development Shs1.8 trillion, regional development Shs1.03 trillion, community mobilisation and mindset change Shs35 billion, while tourism development has been allocated Shs248 billion.
As the headwinds of the passing of the anti-homosexuality law continue, the government has projected a Shs2.75 trillion fall in support from external partners, which has led to an increase in domestic borrowing of 21 percent.
Some sectors most affected by the fall in external funding include health, whose budget has been reduced from Shs4.86 trillion to Shs4.24 trillion.
Government in its strategy is aiming to focus on areas that will drive development, including implementation of the Parish Development Model and other programmes on wealth creation, agro-industry, oil and gas production, tourism and leveraging Internet use.
