Parliament has approved the 2009/10 annual budget which was presented by the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, James Musoni last week.

Musoni had told MPs that he was planning to spend Rwf838billion in the 2009/10 financial year which implied an increment of Rwf 11 billion from the initial Rwf827billion which had been presented in the pre-budget document.

"By the time we were working on the pre-budget document, the government was in talks with a Chinese bank to grant money for the constructions of eight roads within Kigali City,” the Chairperson to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget, Constance Mukayuhi Rwaka said.

"The Chinese Bank (Exim bank) approved the grant for Rwanda which upshot the budget to Rwf838 billion during this financial year,” she added.

Mukayuhi however added that as Rwanda aligns its budget with the rest of EAC countries, the nation has also come up with a unique style.

In other EAC countries, after the Minister of Finance presents the budget in June, it goes to the parliamentary committee which works on the document until September. During that transition, 30% of the budget is allocated to the government to be running its activities as the budget awaits parliamentary blessing.

"The parliament went into an agreement with the Executive to have the pre-budget document worked on by MPs before it is presented to the parliament. This would favor all parties equally since the parliament can freely propose a reduction or an increment of funds on some projects in the budget,” Mukayihi said.

She however added that other EAC countries have expressed interests in the Rwanda system of having the budget deliberation before the document is presented for approval.

The budget highlighted the government’s major areas of expenditure being the infrastructure, maintaining growth in productive sector, development of human capital and promotion of good governance.

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