Govt lists priorities for Financial Year 2022/2023

The Ministry of Finance has outlined major areas that the government is planning to focus on in the upcoming Financial Year 2022/2023 if the economy is to recover from Covid-19 induced shocks.
 According to Finance minister Matia Kasaija, government will mostly focus on raising the per capita income from $954 to $1,049 as well as improve the income of poor Ugandans.

Mr Kasaija said this is in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) lll.
Last Thursday, President Museveni pledged to fully reopen the economy by January next year.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi,  said following a meeting with the Executive, a decision was taken to resuscitate the economy by prioritising to support areas that have direct and faster revenue returns and also secure the lives of Ugandans.

“So we were drafting this strategy to address three major areas; the state of the economy today and in the medium term and the constraints that are in the economy. We also want to rebuild resilience of our economy so that we can transform in the medium term,” he said.
Mr Ggoobi made the remarks while meeting journalists under the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association on a budget strategy sensitisation workshop last Friday in Kampala.

He said they will also focus on growing the country’s Gross Domestic Product, which currently stands at between 3.4 percent and 7 percent. 
In the pursuit of the above, efforts will be directed into supporting sectors that promote industrialisation, especially in the agricultural wing and light manufacturing, and reform public sector for greater effectiveness and efficiency.
Government in this year’s budget prioritised human capital, which encompasses Education and Health. This sector took the lion share of the National Budget amounting to Shs7.7 trillion. This was followed by Security and Governance and infrastructure development.

Priorities
In the next financial year, government will also prioritise maintenance  of available infrastructure, tourism and security, among others.
Government has also pledged that no new taxes will be introduced considering that Ugandans are struggling to keep afloat after Covid-19 impact.

Instead, Mr Ggoobi said, government will shift its energies into mooting measures that will enable the tax collection agency to make Ugandans remit their taxes without fail.
He said majority of taxes government introduced, some have not yielded the intended goal because few are compliant and the majority still evade.