Govt tables Shs. 52.7 trillion budget framework paper

Government has initiated the budget approval process for financial year 2024/2025 through tabling of the National Budget Framework Paper (BFP) amounting Shs52.7 trillion.

The BFP, and the accompanying certificates including; Certificate of Gender and Equity Compliance, and Climate Change Responsiveness were tabled by the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (General duties), Hon. Henry Musasizi during Plenary sitting on Wednesday, 13 December 2023.

Musasizi said that priority areas in 2024/2025 will include; investing in people, roads, peace and security, electricity generation and transmission lines, and effective management of natural disasters.

“The theme of the budget for financial year 2024/2025 remains the same as financial year 2023/2024 which is full monetization of Uganda’s economy through commercial agriculture, industralisstaion, expanding and broadening services, digital transformation and market access,” he said.

He added that the Shs52.7 trillion budget will be financed through improved revenue collection and controlled borrowing to reduce debt servicing costs while supporting faster socio-economic transformation, among others.

Musasizi added that implementation of public financing, including Public Private Partnerships will also be used as a strategy to finance the 2024/2025 budget.

Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Mathias Mpuuga, questioned the legality of the Certificate of Climate Change Responsiveness, based on the absence of regulations of the Climate Change Act, 2021.

“I do not know whether we are we moving well to extract a certificate from a law which has no regulations since it was passed. I do not know where the Minister gets the audacity to lay a certificate from a law that is devoid,” Mpuuga said.

He also said that the Minister ought to have laid the Charter of Fiscal Responsibility, to capture changes made in the 2024/2025 budget.

“The minister has been elaborate on what they intend to change, what he is not spoken about including matters obtained from the Charter of Fiscal Responsibility. The Minister is not clear whether they intend to make some changes to the Charter of Fiscal Responsibility because if that be the case, he should have laid it here with the BFP,” said Mpuuga.

Musasizi clarified that the Charter of Fiscal Responsibility runs for a five year period, and it was approved in 2021 which will cater for the next financial year.

According to the Public Finance Management Act, the Government should table the budget framework paper before Parliament by 31 December 2022, and by 01 February 2023, the House should have approved the budget framework paper.

Following the submission of the National Budget Framework Paper (BFP) by the Finance Minister, Speaker, Anita Among, has charged Members of Parliament to urgently embark on processing the 2024/2025 National Budget.

The BFP is Government’s overall strategy document for the budget, and provides the link between the Government’s policies and the annual budget. It contains information such as revenue projections, the resource envelope, priority interventions and proposed sectoral expenditure plans.

Speaker, Among prescribed new timelines for the budget cycle, which she said will give Parliament adequate time to scrutinize the budget and produce a quality product.

“The earlier we prepare the budget, the better. This business of processing tax bills on the last day together with Appropriation Bill is not good. We for example need to process tax bills early such that we know where we are getting money [from],” Among said during the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 12 December 2023.

She asked the sectoral committees to scrutinize the Budget Framework Paper and report to the Committee on the Budget by 15 January, 2024, earlier than the deadline provided for in the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 which prescribes 01 February.

The Budget Committee will then report to Parliament on the Budget Framework Paper by 25 January 2024.

Among also directed that the Ministerial Policy Statements be tabled by 10 March 2024 from where the Leader of the Opposition draws the alternative policy statement. The Leader of Opposition will have to present alternative policy statements by 20 March 2024.

By 25 March 2024, the Speaker directed that the proposed National Budget for 2024/2025 should be tabled in Parliament.

This is proceeded by the processing of ministerial statements by House Sectoral Committees which the Speaker asked to report to the House by 15 April, 2024.

Parliament will then process the tax bills which Among said should be ready by 01 May 2024.