The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Uzziel Ndagijimana will Monday June 22, in the afternoon read the final budget that the Government will spend in the next fiscal year of 2020-2021, which starts in July. Ndagijimana presented the budget framework paper on May 21, which was then subjected to a parliamentary committee analysis before it was sent back to the executive. Cabinet then approved it last week on June 16. The finance bill that will be presented to the parliamentarians shows that the Government will spend some FRW 3,245.70 billion in the coming fiscal year. The spending for the upcoming year is Rwf228.60 billion higher compared to the FRW 3,017.10 billion in the current fiscal year’s revised budget. According to an explanatory note of the budget, government will raise Rwf1,969.8 billion, 60.7 per cent of the total budget from domestic resources and Rwf1,275.9 billion will be raised externally. At least 49.5 per cent of the budget will be raised from domestic revenue while 11 per cent will come from domestic financing, including the sale of securities to banks and other investors. The rest will come from grants and loans. The cabinet and parliament recommended the Government to rationalize the budget, which was carried out to remove inefficiencies under recurrent related spending, according to the finance bill obtained by this publication. The cabinet encouraged innovative delivery mechanisms using fewer resources. This resulted in a total savings of Rwf187.4 billion, which were reallocated to other strategic interventions with gaps mainly under development budget of agriculture, education, health, disaster management, as well as infrastructure and expropriation. Some other resources were reallocated to cybersecurity, salaries and wages for security agencies and rehabilitation and extension of ongoing districts water supply networks. Response to Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic will generally have far-reaching impact in terms of expenditure, and the Minister said in May that the budget was designed to respond to economic recovery in the immediate and medium-term. “We shall prioritise enhancing our health system, increase agriculture and livestock productivity, and scale social protection,” Ndagijimana told lawmakers back in May. The Government has prioritised job creation, as well as support towards small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and large enterprises affected by Covid-19. The budget will support Made in Rwanda, promote digital technologies to improve service delivery and improve access to quality education. Resources have also been planned to eradicate malnutrition and stunting, and strengthen disaster preparedness and management.
