Overview:
According to Ggoobi, the National Budget for 2023/24 was informed by input from different stakeholders; government, civil society and the private sector, among others.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Ramathan Ggoobi, has launched the National Budget Month (NBM) for FY2023/24, with a call for proactive citizen engagement to demand accountability from government.
“I call upon the public to participate in and/or follow the planned NBM events that include: the Pre-Budget Dialogue with Civil Society Organizations, the Kampala Post-Budget engagement, Regional Post-Budget engagements and various CSR initiatives,” he said at a press conference in Kampala on Tuesday, 30 May 2023.
According to Ggoobi, the National Budget for 2023/24 was informed by input from different stakeholders; government, civil society and the private sector, among others.
He said the Budget for FY 2023/24 is worth Shs52.737 Trillion, expected to be financed as follows; Domestic Revenue-33.3Tn, Project support(Loans & grants)-8.256Tn; Budget support (Borrowed funds)-2.782Tn and Domestic refinancing -8.35Tn.
“We have cut government expenditures on travel from 272bn to 90bn, scaled down on travel abroad, workshops and new vehicle purchases so as to finance other critical sectors,” Ggoobi said.
He said priority has been placed on different initiatives, including the enhancing of Domestic Revenue Mobilisation to finance the country’s development agenda and curtail borrowing.
“Government has been partnering with the Civil Society Organizations since the year 2018 through the National Budget Month activities to popularize the budget, promote access to information on the budget and obtain feedback from the citizens,” he said.
“This is done through physical and virtual media engagements and corporate social responsibility activities. Other avenues include: the Budget Website, the Budget Call Centre and a toll free number 0800229229,” he added.
Ggoobi also revealed that Inflation is reducing steadily thanks to the government’s well-coordinated fiscal and monetary policies.
“Headline inflation reduced to 8% last month and it is expected to further decline this month,” he said.
He said by the end of FY 2023/24, Uganda’s GDP is projected to expand up to Ushs 206.54 trillion (equivalent to USD54.99 billion). This in turn is projected to grow our GDP per capita to USD 1,182, up from USD 1,093 this financial year ending this June.
In his remarks, URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi called upon Ugandans to support the implementation of the budget.
“The National Budget is not just a document that reflects the expenditure of government but also a vital tool for improving welfare, it embodies our aspirations for growth and development as a nation and ensures accountability,” he said.
“A National Budget, however, cannot be effective without the active involvement and engagement of a nation’s citizens. The citizens are not only the beneficiaries of the budget but also contributors and as such have a right to know what their taxes are being spent on,” he said.
He also revealed that the number of registered tax payers has grown from 1.4 m taxpayers to 3.2m.
Dr. Julius Byaruhanga from Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) said he is happy that much of the extravagant spending by government is reducing.
However, he said that government should address challenges that are hindering private sector growth.
Julius Mukunda, the Executive Director at the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), urged government to address issues of accountability, corruption in local government and poor implementation of development programmes and projects to get value for money.
“We must address our public management system i.e there are projects that are just stalling which ends up holding up money and I call upon accounting officers to adhere to this,” he said.
“Secondly, we need to reprimand errant accounting officers. The laws are there but not being implemented. There is also the question of our debt sustainability & management. We need to deal with implementation challenges in the budget by improving effectiveness in project execution as we now have underutilized loans accumulating interest, with no projects taking place,” he added.
Key planned activities in the FY 2023/24 National Budget Month include Pre-Budget Media Engagements, Budget Reading on Thursday, 15th June 2023, Service Excellence Awards, Post Budget Dialogue Post-Budget EAC Tax, Budget Dialogue on Wednesday 28th June 2023.
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