Drama ensued in Parliament on Tuesday when legislators told the Minister of Finance Hon. Maria Kasaija they would not approve an additional Ugx 929 billion in allocations to the 39.54 Trillion National Budget for the next financial year.
During the Tuesday sittibg, an additional budget commonly known as Corrigenda was Tuesday tabled by hon. Kasaija during a plenary session chaired by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanya.
The minister explained to legislators that the money would be used to finance Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) digital stamps and e-tax system, more funding to the Parliamentary Commission for shortfalls on emoluments of MPs, hosting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and other critical funding requirements.
The additional budget that is yet to be approved brings the National Budget to 40.47 trillion shillings.
However, legislators could not take the delayed submission of this additional budget and told the minister to find another way of financing the budget.
Butambala County MP Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi accused the Finance Ministry of derailing and complicating parliaments work.
Hon. Kivumbis submission was supported by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah who told the minister that if his ministry had plans to make adjustments to the budget, documents should have come to Parliament by 1st April. He said it was not fair what the minister was throwing at parliament on such short notice.
But, Kasaija also blamed the mentioned entities for bringing the budget proposals to his ministry late.
He particularly defended the 103 billion shillings additional funding to URA which he says is an emergency situation that is intended to cure under-declaration of tax by companies.
However, this did not convince Oulanyah who emphasized the need to respect budget timelines set by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) so that parliament is not stampeded.
The deputy Speaker ruled that the Budget Committee scrutinizes theadditional budget and immediately report back to parliament.
