A LAY MAN'S VIEW OF THE BUDGET 

By Mutagubya Allan, June 2021

I have taken time to read and comprehend the budget speech for 2021/22 financial year as a lay man. I think going forward, the party in Opposition/opposition as my friend Karamagi refers to it should equally come out with an alternative budget premised on it's manifesto in a developing democracy like ours for one or two reasons; 

- It's attracts the attention of the public to rate the abilities of the government they had voted, and also gives confidence to elitist community that had doubts on the leadership of the party in opposition, including those in government and private sector. These would silently get attracted to this party and also volunteer in one way or the other.

-The budget speech of the party in (O)pposition would attract the attention of development partners that have doubts on the same party. These doubts when cleared, can results into clandestine support to the activities of this party in its way to organising to get into power.

The performance of parliament is appraised on; number of bills passed, number of reports produced in committees, how many corrupt officials in MDAs are brought to book among other things. Most if not all accountability committees that keep government in check are headed by opposition members of parliament. I think those who produce the parliamentary score cards should help the public understand the competence of the committee chairpersons by giving us reports on how many thieves have been brought to book. A comparison would be made between performance of government ministers and the shadow cabinet amidst the meagre resources alloted to the office of the leader of opposition. In the four stages of the budget cycle, parliament directly participates in two of them including budget approval and budget oversight.

In the  financial year 2021/22, government has themed it's paper on industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation. The alternative government has focussed it's energies to Accountability and service, according to the leader of opposition. As a lay man, I have made a few highlights in this budget paper as follows:

Government has made thousands of commitments in this financial in the sectors of Agriculture, infrastructure, human capital development  and peace and security. I can confirm that the committee for government assurances headed by Hon. Nambooze Betty is going to be one of the busiest committees in seeing to it that these commitments are met. In the subsequent financial year, we hope that she gives us a report of government's performance on else Hon. Bobi Wine  shall address is in this regard.

The resource envelop for this financial year is 44.7trillions. If you exclude domestic debt financing,it comes to 36.01 trillion. Of this amount, domestic revenue is expected to 22.4trillion including tax and non tax revenue. This is 13.8% of the  GDP, of course the lowest in the three region excluding Burundi and  Congo. What's very funny is that government is going to borrow domestically 2.9 trillion and externally 5.5 trillion. This comes to 8.4 trillion in loans. The same government has 8.5trillion allocated for domestic debt financing. Simply put, government is borrowing money to pay it's loans. The challenge with domestic borrowing it's that they are largely concessional unlike the external loans. There several other disadvantages to domestic borrowing because of its trickle down effect to business men who depend on commercial banks. The finance minister designate stated that as of December 2020, Uganda's debt stood at $17.96billion, which was 49.8% of the GDP. However economists tell us that our debt to GDP ratio as of June 2021 stands at 51%, which is past the threshold. Government however can justify the borrowing.

Government is putting special attention to Agro- industrialization. Agriculture is stagnant at 23% in terms of contribution to GDP. 1.67trillion has been allocated to the sector. It's a good step in the right direction though much more should be injected.

In specific terms, a lot effort is going to be put in the parish development model. Unfortunately, on 30m has been allocated to each parish. In heavily populated parishes, I don't think this money can be felt. Sometime back this year Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi highlighted that only 33% of parishes in Uganda had parish chiefs.

Government is paying lip-service to Digitisation. That this will enhance e-governance, e-payments, e-learning, E-Trade among other things. Our internet Access is however still stagnant at 52% with only 21million users. Sadly, government is only injecting 134billions  to this sector. The same government has slapped a 12% excise Levy on airtime. Who is fooling who?

Government says the economy has expanded from 108.5trillions ($35billion) as of 2018 to 148.3trillion ($40billions) as of June 2021, with a per capita income of about $800. Well how many Ugandans fill the economy in their pockets. Those who loot and invest here are causing generalisation that leaves the common person un attended to. The national household say of 2020 indicates that 68% of Ugandans are employed in Agriculture, 74% of Ugandans of working age at least have some form of employment. May be I live in a different country, this looks a cooked up figure. That 39% of those employed in Agriculture are in subsistence. General Museveni concluded that the 61% remaining in Agriculture are therefore in the money economy 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Our population is projected to be 47m Ugandans. Out of these, only 1.5m are in formal employment and therefore taxed. This explains the heavy tax burden on the few tax payers.

That 16750 persons are employed in the middle East remitting $9m every month to our economy. Pulida Bwowe explain to us if we are about to have a bill that protects the safety of our sons and daughters in these countries. 

That Foreign Direct investment by 20% from $1.1b in 2018 to $1.3b in 2020. Domestic investment only increased by 13% in the same period from $385.3m to $433.8. Something could be fundamentally wrong with our investment policy. It favors foreigners to its citizens. Developed economies like India give as less as 1% to FDIs. Government should rethink it's incentives to domestic investors. Foreign investors largely repatriate profits, deplete our dollar reserves hence increasing the cost of money. Domestic investors value Ugandan more than foreigners.The wage bill should also be given the attention it deserves. 

The tax regimes on maize and maize brands, gold and other minerals were well thought. These shall largely encourage agro-processing and value addition to minerals respectively. The result will be more employment opportunities to Ugandans.

Lastly, it's not true that human capital development took the largest share of the budget as the government wants it to appear. Education, health, water and sanitation together have 7.7trillion. This implies that each sector has about 2.2 trillions. Peace and security alone have over 6.5trillion.  Domestic debt financing has the largest share of 8.4trillion. If you compare domestic revenue to domestic debt refinancing, 37.9% of the revenue collected would end up servicing debts.

By Mutagubya AllanA LAY MAN'S VIEW OF THE BUDGET 

I have taken time to read and comprehend the budget speech for 2021/22 financial year as a lay man. I think going forward, the party in Opposition/opposition as my friend Karamagi refers to it should equally come out with an alternative budget premised on it's manifesto in a developing democracy like ours for one or two reasons; 

- It's attracts the attention of the public to rate the abilities of the government they had voted, and also gives confidence to elitist community that had doubts on the leadership of the party in opposition, including those in government and private sector. These would silently get attracted to this party and also volunteer in one way or the other.

-The budget speech of the party in (O)pposition would attract the attention of development partners that have doubts on the same party. These doubts when cleared, can results into clandestine support to the activities of this party in its way to organising to get into power.

The performance of parliament is appraised on; number of bills passed, number of reports produced in committees, how many corrupt officials in MDAs are brought to book among other things. Most if not all accountability committees that keep government in check are headed by opposition members of parliament. I think those who produce the parliamentary score cards should help the public understand the competence of the committee chairpersons by giving us reports on how many thieves have been brought to book. A comparison would be made between performance of government ministers and the shadow cabinet amidst the meagre resources alloted to the office of the leader of opposition. In the four stages of the budget cycle, parliament directly participates in two of them including budget approval and budget oversight.

In the  financial year 2021/22, government has themed it's paper on industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation. The alternative government has focussed it's energies to Accountability and service, according to the leader of opposition. As a lay man, I have made a few highlights in this budget paper as follows:

Government has made thousands of commitments in this financial in the sectors of Agriculture, infrastructure, human capital development  and peace and security. I can confirm that the committee for government assurances headed by Hon. Nambooze Betty is going to be one of the busiest committees in seeing to it that these commitments are met. In the subsequent financial year, we hope that she gives us a report of government's performance on else Hon. Bobi Wine  shall address is in this regard.

The resource envelop for this financial year is 44.7trillions. If you exclude domestic debt financing,it comes to 36.01 trillion. Of this amount, domestic revenue is expected to 22.4trillion including tax and non tax revenue. This is 13.8% of the  GDP, of course the lowest in the three region excluding Burundi and  Congo. What's very funny is that government is going to borrow domestically 2.9 trillion and externally 5.5 trillion. This comes to 8.4 trillion in loans. The same government has 8.5trillion allocated for domestic debt financing. Simply put, government is borrowing money to pay it's loans. The challenge with domestic borrowing it's that they are largely concessional unlike the external loans. There several other disadvantages to domestic borrowing because of its trickle down effect to business men who depend on commercial banks. The finance minister designate stated that as of December 2020, Uganda's debt stood at $17.96billion, which was 49.8% of the GDP. However economists tell us that our debt to GDP ratio as of June 2021 stands at 51%, which is past the threshold. Government however can justify the borrowing.

Government is putting special attention to Agro- industrialization. Agriculture is stagnant at 23% in terms of contribution to GDP. 1.67trillion has been allocated to the sector. It's a good step in the right direction though much more should be injected.

In specific terms, a lot effort is going to be put in the parish development model. Unfortunately, on 30m has been allocated to each parish. In heavily populated parishes, I don't think this money can be felt. Sometime back this year Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi highlighted that only 33% of parishes in Uganda had parish chiefs.

Government is paying lip-service to Digitisation. That this will enhance e-governance, e-payments, e-learning, E-Trade among other things. Our internet Access is however still stagnant at 52% with only 21million users. Sadly, government is only injecting 134billions  to this sector. The same government has slapped a 12% excise Levy on airtime. Who is fooling who?

Government says the economy has expanded from 108.5trillions ($35billion) as of 2018 to 148.3trillion ($40billions) as of June 2021, with a per capita income of about $800. Well how many Ugandans fill the economy in their pockets. Those who loot and invest here are causing generalisation that leaves the common person un attended to. The national household say of 2020 indicates that 68% of Ugandans are employed in Agriculture, 74% of Ugandans of working age at least have some form of employment. May be I live in a different country, this looks a cooked up figure. That 39% of those employed in Agriculture are in subsistence. General Museveni concluded that the 61% remaining in Agriculture are therefore in the money economy 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Our population is projected to be 47m Ugandans. Out of these, only 1.5m are in formal employment and therefore taxed. This explains the heavy tax burden on the few tax payers.

That 16750 persons are employed in the middle East remitting $9m every month to our economy. Pulida Bwowe explain to us if we are about to have a bill that protects the safety of our sons and daughters in these countries. 

That Foreign Direct investment by 20% from $1.1b in 2018 to $1.3b in 2020. Domestic investment only increased by 13% in the same period from $385.3m to $433.8. Something could be fundamentally wrong with our investment policy. It favors foreigners to its citizens. Developed economies like India give as less as 1% to FDIs. Government should rethink it's incentives to domestic investors. Foreign investors largely repatriate profits, deplete our dollar reserves hence increasing the cost of money. Domestic investors value Ugandan more than foreigners.The wage bill should also be given the attention it deserves. 

The tax regimes on maize and maize brands, gold and other minerals were well thought. These shall largely encourage agro-processing and value addition to minerals respectively. The result will be more employment opportunities to Ugandans.

Lastly, it's not true that human capital development took the largest share of the budget as the government wants it to appear. Education, health, water and sanitation together have 7.7trillion. This implies that each sector has about 2.2 trillions. Peace and security alone have over 6.5trillion.  Domestic debt financing has the largest share of 8.4trillion. If you compare domestic revenue to domestic debt refinancing, 37.9% of the revenue collected would end up servicing debts.

By Mutagubya AllanA LAY MAN'S VIEW OF THE BUDGET 

I have taken time to read and comprehend the budget speech for 2021/22 financial year as a lay man. I think going forward, the party in Opposition/opposition as my friend Karamagi refers to it should equally come out with an alternative budget premised on it's manifesto in a developing democracy like ours for one or two reasons; 

- It's attracts the attention of the public to rate the abilities of the government they had voted, and also gives confidence to elitist community that had doubts on the leadership of the party in opposition, including those in government and private sector. These would silently get attracted to this party and also volunteer in one way or the other.

-The budget speech of the party in (O)pposition would attract the attention of development partners that have doubts on the same party. These doubts when cleared, can results into clandestine support to the activities of this party in its way to organising to get into power.

The performance of parliament is appraised on; number of bills passed, number of reports produced in committees, how many corrupt officials in MDAs are brought to book among other things. Most if not all accountability committees that keep government in check are headed by opposition members of parliament. I think those who produce the parliamentary score cards should help the public understand the competence of the committee chairpersons by giving us reports on how many thieves have been brought to book. A comparison would be made between performance of government ministers and the shadow cabinet amidst the meagre resources alloted to the office of the leader of opposition. In the four stages of the budget cycle, parliament directly participates in two of them including budget approval and budget oversight.

In the  financial year 2021/22, government has themed it's paper on industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation. The alternative government has focussed it's energies to Accountability and service, according to the leader of opposition. As a lay man, I have made a few highlights in this budget paper as follows:

Government has made thousands of commitments in this financial in the sectors of Agriculture, infrastructure, human capital development  and peace and security. I can confirm that the committee for government assurances headed by Hon. Nambooze Betty is going to be one of the busiest committees in seeing to it that these commitments are met. In the subsequent financial year, we hope that she gives us a report of government's performance on else Hon. Bobi Wine  shall address is in this regard.

The resource envelop for this financial year is 44.7trillions. If you exclude domestic debt financing,it comes to 36.01 trillion. Of this amount, domestic revenue is expected to 22.4trillion including tax and non tax revenue. This is 13.8% of the  GDP, of course the lowest in the three region excluding Burundi and  Congo. What's very funny is that government is going to borrow domestically 2.9 trillion and externally 5.5 trillion. This comes to 8.4 trillion in loans. The same government has 8.5trillion allocated for domestic debt financing. Simply put, government is borrowing money to pay it's loans. The challenge with domestic borrowing it's that they are largely concessional unlike the external loans. There several other disadvantages to domestic borrowing because of its trickle down effect to business men who depend on commercial banks. The finance minister designate stated that as of December 2020, Uganda's debt stood at $17.96billion, which was 49.8% of the GDP. However economists tell us that our debt to GDP ratio as of June 2021 stands at 51%, which is past the threshold. Government however can justify the borrowing.

Government is putting special attention to Agro- industrialization. Agriculture is stagnant at 23% in terms of contribution to GDP. 1.67trillion has been allocated to the sector. It's a good step in the right direction though much more should be injected.

In specific terms, a lot effort is going to be put in the parish development model. Unfortunately, on 30m has been allocated to each parish. In heavily populated parishes, I don't think this money can be felt. Sometime back this year Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi highlighted that only 33% of parishes in Uganda had parish chiefs.

Government is paying lip-service to Digitisation. That this will enhance e-governance, e-payments, e-learning, E-Trade among other things. Our internet Access is however still stagnant at 52% with only 21million users. Sadly, government is only injecting 134billions  to this sector. The same government has slapped a 12% excise Levy on airtime. Who is fooling who?

Government says the economy has expanded from 108.5trillions ($35billion) as of 2018 to 148.3trillion ($40billions) as of June 2021, with a per capita income of about $800. Well how many Ugandans fill the economy in their pockets. Those who loot and invest here are causing generalisation that leaves the common person un attended to. The national household say of 2020 indicates that 68% of Ugandans are employed in Agriculture, 74% of Ugandans of working age at least have some form of employment. May be I live in a different country, this looks a cooked up figure. That 39% of those employed in Agriculture are in subsistence. General Museveni concluded that the 61% remaining in Agriculture are therefore in the money economy 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Our population is projected to be 47m Ugandans. Out of these, only 1.5m are in formal employment and therefore taxed. This explains the heavy tax burden on the few tax payers.

That 16750 persons are employed in the middle East remitting $9m every month to our economy. Pulida Bwowe explain to us if we are about to have a bill that protects the safety of our sons and daughters in these countries. 

That Foreign Direct investment by 20% from $1.1b in 2018 to $1.3b in 2020. Domestic investment only increased by 13% in the same period from $385.3m to $433.8. Something could be fundamentally wrong with our investment policy. It favors foreigners to its citizens. Developed economies like India give as less as 1% to FDIs. Government should rethink it's incentives to domestic investors. Foreign investors largely repatriate profits, deplete our dollar reserves hence increasing the cost of money. Domestic investors value Ugandan more than foreigners.The wage bill should also be given the attention it deserves. 

The tax regimes on maize and maize brands, gold and other minerals were well thought. These shall largely encourage agro-processing and value addition to minerals respectively. The result will be more employment opportunities to Ugandans.

Lastly, it's not true that human capital development took the largest share of the budget as the government wants it to appear. Education, health, water and sanitation together have 7.7trillion. This implies that each sector has about 2.2 trillions. Peace and security alone have over 6.5trillion.  Domestic debt financing has the largest share of 8.4trillion. If you compare domestic revenue to domestic debt refinancing, 37.9% of the revenue collected would end up servicing debts.