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Mbarara, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mbarara City Council has reduced its budget for the next financial year by 15 billion shillings
The City Council on Friday approved 51.4 billion shillings down from 66.89 billion shillings for the financial year 2023/2024.
While presenting the budget estimates Ronald Taremwa, the Secretary for Finance, said that the current financial year was partially funded by the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) program with 23 billion shillings.
The funds were used to construct three roads: Major Victor Bwana (0.95 km), Galt Road (0.65 km), and Stanley Road (0.78 km).
He noted that since the USMID program is coming to an end, there will be no funds available next financial year, resulting in the reduction of funds .
According to the approved budget, the city council has projected to collect approximately 10 billion Shillings of local revenue. This is an increase from the 9 billion shillings collected in this financial year. Additionally, there will be 35.329 billion shillings in government transfers.
John Kavigi, the Chairperson of the Social Service Committee and Male Youth Councilor, said that during the joint committee meetings, they proposed to increase the revenue collected from Nyakayojo Matooke daily market from 10 million to 16 million shillings montly.
They also suggested increasing the central market rental fee collections from 390 million to 500 million shillings and the local service tax from 656 million to 800 million shillings in order to fund next year’s budget.
Taremwa said that some of the priorities in the approved budget include the construction of the Katete Bridge, at 5.2 Billion shillings, procurement of land titles for council land, opening of new roads and maintenance of existing ones, and support for health unit infrastructure, at 800 million shillings among
Milton Mugume, a trader on McAllister Road, said that approving a budget that doesn’t address the needs of the taxpayer is a waste of time.
He noted that the council has failed to repair street lights and open the drainage system, yet they force traders to pay taxes.
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