State Minister of Finance David Bahati has submitted Shs28.9 trillion proposed budget estimates 2 Parliament for 2017/18 FY.
Hon. Bahati says the economy is expected to grow at a rate of 6-7% in 2017/18 financial year due to reduced cost of electricity and doing business in key infrastructure. 75.4% domestic financed budget seeks to have UGX17.4tn go to recurrent expenditure and UGX11.5tn in development expenditure.
“The economy is expected to rebound to a growth rate of 6-7 per cent in in Financial Year 2017-2018 as a result of government interventions to reduce the cost of electricity and doing business in key infrastructure,” he said.
Mr Bahati the slowdown in economic growth on slow pace of recovery of the global economy, weak demand for Uganda’s exports, prolonged conflicts in South Sudan and Burundi, delay in implementation of key projects and adverse weather conditions.
“Intensifying the fight against corruption, boosting domestic revenue,” said Mr Bahati, are key budget strategies for Financial Year 2017-2018.
The biggest beneficiary will be the transport sector, whose budget will increase by 27.3 per cent from Ush3.8 trillion ($7 billion) in the 2016/17 financial year to Ush4.9 trillion ($1.3 billion) in 2017/18.
In the coming financial year, agriculture will receive Ush846.7 billion ($231 million), compared with the Ush823.42 billion ($225.2 million) from the previous financial year.
Some of the items government has exempted from VAT include sanitary pads, donor-funded projects, agricultural inputs, factories established outside the radius of 50 kilometers from Kampala, sugar confectionaries, and many others.
In a bid to reduce the high power tariffs, government has exempted Bujagali Power Dam from paying taxes on its income.
Debt repayment will take sh9.9trillion which is 34% of the total budget of sh28.9trillion.
