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The summary of this financial year’s budget is riddled with inconsistencies, amateurism, and most of all lacks the tenets, which are enshrined in nation state budget; THE PEOPLE AND THEIR SOCIAL JUSTICE.
The positives first;
Mobile phones:
1. 10% on mobile phones should go up to 17%, which implies then that more land-based telephony will quicken integrated Internet proliferation into the villages. Kampala has proved the facts that without the existence of landlines it will be very difficult to expand the Internet and indeed Internet users are very low in Kampala per population concentration. This can be proved with homes in and outside Kampala who have Internet facilities 24 hours.
2. More money should be poured into Uganda communication Commission for integrating the telephone, fax Internet, computing, Television and radio.
3. Uganda should be divided into telecommunication cells /regions (about 6-8) for the development of alternative communication based on radio wave - digital technology that can quicken transfer of data in form of voice, text, video images etc. This should put into consideration the need for fast telecommunication networks and regional niches and natural endowments.
4. Telecommunication should go hand in hand with remote sensing, video education and cinematology as generator.
Fuel:
1. 50 shilling on fuels should strengthen the environmental area. Banning the use of hydrocarbon fuels in town and capital cities will imply (see b)
2. More research in alternative means of transport not detrimental to our environment are initiated.
3. All vehicles emitting carcinogenic compounds should be taxed heavily to 17% and vehicles with improved engineers running on natural produced fuels, taxes should be reduced to levels that can attract investment into such transport means, both into research and industrial establishments.
4. Vehicles carrying more than 10 passengers but less than 15 above should be banned or import taxes on them increased.
5. Those who own motor cars are those who can pay tax – there should be a road tax of 1000 shilling per motor can per month which money should go in road maintenance, design and construction consolidated fund.
6. Ban the use of Mini buses in major town cities- they should go further to villages.
Soft drinks
1. Taxes on soft drinks which have no natural ingredients (fruits grown in Uganda) up to 60% should be taxed up above 17 %
2. Taxes on soft drinks with 60% of natural ingredients (Uganda fruits) should be lowed to the budget mentioned level.
3. Taxes on drinks with 100 % natural ingredients should be lowered to 5%.
4. Taxes on soft drink additives imported into the country should be increased to 20% - which money should be used to research into natural preservation methods.
Mivumba
1. Taxes on mivumba should rise to 60% while taxes on clothing material provided by schools, public entities and utilities, hotels, restaurants, medical centres and Uganda made and designed garments should revert to 17%.
2. Uganda should start national cloth and material design schools and all
3. Private and Public entities should seek to provide provisions for clothing for their employers.
Forestry:
1. Ban planting of eucalyptus trees in wetlands. Those in wetland should be cut down and let the wetlands rejuvenate. Forests in Kigezi region should be reforested as soon as it can be possible. The same applies to semi-deserter regions including Karamoja.
2. Research into indigenous soft wood trees for timber, paper, pulp and other building material
3. Catalogue all medicinal and soil fertilising properties of trees in Uganda will go a long way to establish facts about our forestry potential.
4. All regions along lakes and riversides should be forest areas about to 1/2 Kilometre beyond water channels or bodies.
5. The private sector should seek zoological, botanical as well as commercial ventures in forestry in point 4.
Computer or digital equipment:
1. Taxes on computer hardware should be 2% - money, which should be invested, in private venture with innovative means of manufacturing here in Uganda.
2. Taxes on software should revert 17% as any other consumption commodity and instead 17% taxes on mobile phones shared in promoting software design schools capitalising on African needs; business. Administration, graphics, industry robotics, remote sensing, optics and neurology.
3. Circuit design should be the basis of the above institutionalisation of software design.
4. Medicine should get it own department working with forestry, botany, environment, geography, mineralogy, physics etc.
Electricity:
1. Houses are the basis for electrification
2. Urban planning and design is another generator to electrification
3. Non of the above does exist in Uganda on any scale which will suggest electrification can be a reality come whatever year politicians talk about.
The budget 2004 was geared to appease corporate entities and the networked moneyed class. It is anti-people in every aspect it gives and takes way, even the little they have hence leaving them into deeper absolute poverty:
Where is housing and hygiene, how are the absolutely poor get access to medicare, clothing and the like? See export promotion which is out competed with other contradictions therein!
There is absolutely no mentioning of returns from the banking sector and future estimation growth, transport, nothing about thermal electricity production, posts, returns from services both in private and public sectors? Why?
Reference:
a. Agriculture sector: Agro-Forest, Farming, Tourism and Fisheries (marine products)
b. Extractive industry (mines and mineral exploration)
c. Manufacturing industry
d. Hydro power, Gas, Fossil fuels, Thermal Electricity
e. Construction (building) Sector
f. Goods marketing, Restaurant and Hotel services
g. Posts, public transport and Telecommunication
h. Banking, Insurance, Commercial Building Administration, Consultancy Services
i. Public Administration and other services.
How many sectors does the budget cover?
Bwanika.
BUDGET 2003/04
“Increased Production, for Increased Exports and the Eradication of Absolute Poverty.”
Poverty in Uganda is generated by low or no returns on agro products: fruits etc. How is carbonated water (soft drinks) going redeem those in absolute poverty besides medical cost associated with consumption of those so-called soft drinks?
Money squandered on programme for the modernisation of agriculture and National Agricultural Advisory Services hopefully is not wasted. More so what is NAAD and NARO going to research into?
1. Contradiction:
a. Carbonated Waters (Soft Drinks)
In order to stimulate the consumption of soft drinks, I propose to reduce the excise duty on soft drinks from 15 percent to 13 percent.
b. Advisory Services and Research
Mr. Speaker Sir, the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) is currently operational in 100 sub counties in sixteen districts. Farmers are now able to define the agricultural advisory services that they require and contract service providers. Accordingly, the NAADS programme will be extended into 5 more districts, bringing the total to 21 districts.
The National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) is being restructured and reformed, to provide for the separation of funding and service delivery within the research system. The restructuring will also enhance the participation of the private sector, local government structures and communities in research implementation, in addition to promoting efficiency in resource use, through competitive research grants.
c. Actions to Promote Strategic Exports
Mr. Speaker Sir, financial year 2002/03 is the second year of implementing the 5-year Strategic Export Programme (SEP). A total of Sh52.5b was provided to promote the production, processing and marketing of strategic exports. We realise that many of these interventions will take time to generate the desired structural transformation in the economy. However, judging from the preliminary results, I am confident that the interventions so far made by Government will boost exports.
d. Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture
Mr. Speaker Sir, Pillar 3 of the PEAP is mainly being delivered under The Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) and covers a number of areas, as I will now outline.
District, Urban and Community Access Roads and Water Ways In FY 2002/03, about Sh 50b was provided for the routine and periodic maintenance of district and urban roads, as a critical requirement for rural development. This year, 25, 000 km of district roads received routine maintenance and 1,870 km were rehabilitated. Development of waterways received Sh9.5b
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2. Contradiction.
The statements below are wrong (see b) since quarterly food prices over the past financial year have not shown or reflected what is being said above.
In fact the budget shows that contradiction:
a. Exports
Horticulture earnings, from products such as flowers, fruit and vegetables, are also increasing, expanding by an impressive 38 percent, from US$29.5 mill to US$ 40.7 mill over the same period. Over 4,000 jobs have been created and new market niches in USA, Europe and the Middle East have been penetrated.
b. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth
Real GDP growth in 2002/03 is estimated at 4.9 percent. This is lower than our targeted rate of growth of 7 percent, because of a slowdown in the growth of food crop agriculture, on account of the deterioration in climatic conditions, relative to the very good conditions that prevailed in 2001/02. However, some sectors continued to grow strongly, including manufacturing at 6.6 percent, and the wholesale and retail trade and the transport and communication sectors, which both grew at 9.7 percent.
Mr. Speaker Sir, with the expected recovery in agricultural production, growth in real GDP, for fiscal year 2003/04, is projected at 5.6 percent. However, our medium term objective is to restore GDP growth to 7 percent per annum. To achieve this objective, it will be necessary to deepen and accelerate the supply side reforms required to boost the economy.
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Action to promote strategic exports
In the services sector, I am pleased to state that our interventions in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have already produced significant results. Two local ICT companies are providing telemarketing and data processing services to North American companies, thereby opening up job opportunities for our skilled youth and generating foreign exchange.
Development of ICT is basically development of both soft and hardware tools – but if one takes away taxes especially on imported software for example that will result into out computer software developed here to stagnate – then that is a negative development for human resources here. Certainly we must be developing human resources in this field as well as industry itself and protecting them. Our major problem is hard ware based industry, which should be specifically attracted through tax holiday provisions.
3. Contradicted: (human resources development)
a. Computer Software
Mr. Speaker Sir, I have already referred to the importance of the development of Information and Communication Technology. In financial year 2002/03, duty and VAT were remitted on computers and accessories. As a further incentive in this area, I am now exempting VAT on computer
b. Actions to Promote Strategic Exports
Mr. Speaker Sir, financial year 2002/03 is the second year of implementing the 5-year Strategic Export Programme (SEP). A total of Sh52.5b was provided to promote the production, processing and marketing of strategic exports. We realise that many of these interventions will take time to generate the desired structural transformation in the economy. However, judging from the preliminary results, I am confident that the interventions so far made by Government will boost exports.
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4. Contradiction
Is population growth a precursor to economic growth as the nation gets consumers or the opposite is true? That aside, HOW MANY UGANDANS ARE actually provided on collective supportive provisions i.e. taxes in form of housing, medicare, food, and clothing, transport to make the statement below logically consistent? What is the population per capita / government tax distribution ratio per citizen of the population given below?
a. Procurement
The results show that the population of Uganda was 24.7 million persons, up from 16.4 million in 1991. The average annual growth rate is 3.4 percent, compared with an estimate of 2.5 percent in the previous census. This growth rate, which is among the highest in the world, is a major bottleneck for achieving poverty reduction and realising the Millennium Development Goals. This problem has to be addressed more vigorously, especially through interventions, which target child spacing to protect the health of mother and child.
5. Inconsistence:
What happens when donor funds dry up from the Global Fund of US$ 35m?
Health
To further improve health outcomes, I have increased the allocation to primary health care next year by Sh9b, to Shs. 105 bn, representing a 9 percent increase, one of the largest increases in the budget. Out of this, allocations to non-wage recurrent expenditure, including drugs, will receive a 14 percent increase. Recognising the contribution of Non Government Organisation health service providers, a partnership policy is being finalised and I am accordingly increasing the subsidy to them by Shs. 1 bn to Sh17.7b Also included in the increase in funding to Primary Health Care is extra funding for district hospitals, which play a vital role in delivering Primary Health Care services to the poor. I am pleased to announce that we are granting all District Hospitals PAF protection with effect from next financial year. Uganda is to receive US$ 35mthrough the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This will boost the availability of key health services in the country.
Extractive sector
What is the total income from the extractive industry? Uganda is not producing only cement, columbite-tantalite, gold and fossil fuels. Where are the income data on other minerals? And stones?
Mineral
In the mineral sub sector, Government has provided a further Sh1.6b during the current financial year, in support of the ongoing petroleum exploration programme. Exploration activities in the Semliki basin have reaffirmed the existence of oil deposits and further drilling is planned to establish their size. A seismic survey has commenced in the region of Lake Albert to identify prospects for additional drilling.
The appraisal for columbite-tantalite prospects was concluded with seven sites identified for further detailed exploration in Ntungamo district. The private sector has developed a gold mine in Mubende district, is processing gold in Busia and producing vermiculite in Wakiso district. In addition, the Tororo Cement Plant has been fully rehabilitated with a production capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. During FY 2003/04, the value of mineral exports is projected to grow to US$ 71.0 mill, from US$. 66 mill in 2002.
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I highly commend this budget to you. Mr. Speaker Sir, and Honourable Members, I beg to move.
For God and My Country
Ends
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bwanika
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