Industrial sector grew by 2 percent- Kasaija

Budget 2021 summary

✳ Resource envelope Sh45.5 trillion
✳ Revenue Sh21.8 trillion
✳ Uganda GDP Sh138 trillion
✳ Uganda GDP rate +3.1%
✳ Electricity output 1254MW
✳ Paved roads 5600km
✳ National IT backbone, 49 districts
✳ Internet bandwidth $70/Mbps
✳ UDB 1trillion injection
✳ Domestic arrears pay 673bn
✳ VAT refund 120bn
✳Waive tax interest 50bn
✳ UDC 138bn injection
✳ SACCOs 94bn fund
✳ Postpone PAYE 65bn
✳ NAADS e-voucher 300bn
✳ Assistance to >80yr olds, 107bn
✳ Covid vulnerable 130bn

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The industrial sector grew at only 2% in the 2019/20 financial year, down from 10.1% in 2018/19, becoming one of the biggest victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

While reading the 2020/21 financial year budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said the sector was affected by the closures and inability of industries to continue working.

The industry sector is comprised of manufacturing, mining and quarrying and construction. The dismal performance means less production, less employment, fewer taxes for the economy.

These two had the biggest slumps, explaining the dismal performance of the industry sector.

Manufacturing activities for instance grew at only 1.4 percent in 2019/2020 compared to 7.8 percent in 2018/19, reports Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

Mining and quarrying declined by 2.8 percent in 2019/2020 financial year compared to 33.4 percent growth in the previous year.

On the other hand, construction activities registered a slowdown growth of 5.4 percent in 2019/2020 compared to the 14.2 percent growth in the 2018/19.

In the budget that is mainly devoid of the usual pomp that Kasaija displayed in previous budgets, he said the economy managed to grow by just 3.1%, down from the earlier projected growth of 6%.

In this growth, agriculture played a critical role, growing at the highest rate than any other sector. agriculture expanded at 4%, Kasaija said.

The size of the economy is now Shs 138 trillion (USD 37bn) in 2019/20, up from Shs 109 trillion (USD 29.5bn) in the 2018/19.

The 2020/21 budget under the theme, stimulating the economy to safeguard livelihoods, jobs, businesses and industrial recovery, will be defined by what business survives or fails in the next few months.

FULL Uganda Budget-speech 2020-2021 by The Independent Magazine on Scribd

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