The Secretary to Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has issued the First Budget Call Circular for the 2025/26 national budget, where Uganda Revenue Authority is expected to collect taxes to a tune of Shs33.182Trn, up from Shs31. 982 trillion, the authority is expected to collect in 2024/25.
The national total budget is expected to drop to Shs57.441Trn from the ambitious Shs72.136 trillion that the government is currently operating.
“The preliminary resource envelope for FY 2025/26 is projected to amount to Shs57.441 trillion that shall be sourced as follows: Domestic revenue-Shs33.182 billion, Petroleum Fund-Shs500 billion, Budget support Shs30 billion, domestic borrowing-Shs4.011 trillion, Project Support (External financing) -Shs12.812 trillion, Domestic refinancing Shs6.612 trillion, while local revenue for local governments will amount to Shs293 billion,” read in part the Circular.
According to the preliminary figures, government intends to spend Shs7.934 trillion on the payment of salaries for its entire employee, while Shs12.100 trillion will go towards Non-Wage expenditures like rent, utilities, fuel, office items etc, and only Shs4.211 trillion will go towards the critical development projects.
Although Ggoobi indicated plans by government to reduce external borrowing by a tune of Shs1.364 trillion, from Shs1.394 trillion to just Shs29.9 billion, there will be an increase in external debt repayment from the current Shs3.149 trillion to Shs4.011trillion, which is a Shs882.5billion increment.
In the preliminary allocations, Human Capital Development (Education & Health sectors) will account for the lion share of Shs9.394 trillion, followed by governance & security-Shs7.634 trillion, and Integrated Transport Infrastructure Shs6.354 trillion.
The sectors with the least allocations include; Mineral Development Shs25.55 billion, Mindset Change-Shs36.75 billion and Information, Technology & Digital Transfer- Shs168.01 billion.