…As Governance and Sovereignty get highest vote of Frw136.7 billion The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning James Musoni, Thursday presented the 2009 mini budget before members of parliament. The Frw378.3bn transitional budget will run from January to June 2009, as Government plans to harmonise its budget calendar with other East African member states’. Rwanda officially joined the EAC in July 2007, and is currently in the process of harmonising its policies and processes with those of the regional bloc, in various areas of cooperation including the alignment of its budget calendar, explained Musoni in his budget statement. The financial year for other East African Countries starts from July 1 ending June 30 of the following year, while Rwanda’s fiscal year has run from January to December. The budget allocations according to the 4 sectors of the Economic Development Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), priorities are shared out as follows; Governance and Sovereignty has the highest budget allocation of 36 percent; Human Development and Social Sectors with 32 percent while Infrastructure and Productive Capacities have 24 percent and 8 percent respectively. Domestic resources are estimated at Frw197 billion compared to external resources at Frw181.3 billion. In the new budget proposal, tax receipts are estimated at Frw166.2 billion, accounting for 44 percent of the total budget. According to Musoni, the increase is due to the good performance and improvement in tax administration but also high process of goods and services that have a positive impact on taxes. Non-tax revenues are estimated at Frw16.5 billion, representing a fall of 4 percent compared to the 2008 revised budget of total resources. The biggest fall interestingly, according to the 2009 mini budget proposal, loan financing has fallen from 22 percent since 2000 to five percent in the 2009 mini budget. The 2009 mini budget centers more on the four priority sectors of the EDPRS; infrastructure, productive capacities, human development, and governance. “Governance spending has been reduced due to falling loan repayments and exceptional expenditure related to post-conflict,” Musoni explained the budget allocations. Despite this Governance and Sovereignty take a lion share in the 2009 mini budget with Frw 136.7 billion, a drop from the 2008 allocation of Frw 263 billion. Emphasis on this allocation will be on, “improving and promoting community policing, support to functioning of Government institutions, strengthening fiscal decentralization policy by increasing to districts and continued participation in peace keeping missions,” explained Musoni. Ends
