The Senate Wednesday commended the proposed budget for 2018/19 as inclusive of all crucial sectors in the country, a resolution that will help fast-track Parliament’s final approval of the draft budget law tabled in the House last week.
Senators made their approval of the budget proposal after hearing the analysis of the draft budget law made by members of the senatorial Standing Committee on Economic Development and Finance.
"The committee commends that the budget has catered for all sectors of the country’s life with a focus on industrialisation for job creation and shared prosperity,” said Senator Jacqueline Muhongayire, chairperson of the senatorial Standing Committee on Economic Development and Finance.
She lauded the budget as having catered for different issues in the country, including extending help to the needy such as vulnerable genocide survivors and other people who are in need of help.
The national budget for the next fiscal year has put more emphasis on supporting local industries to produce more and empowering young people to create jobs.
Valued at slightly over Rwf2.4 trillion, the budget proposal was tabled in Parliament last Thursday by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Uzziel Ndagijimana.
Just like the rest of East African Community Partner States, it was prepared under the theme of "Industrialisation for Job Creation and Shared Prosperity”, to emphasise the government’s will to invest in supporting local industries to boost their production and empower young people with job creation skills.
The budget will be domestically funded at the tune of 84 per cent as the Government expects to finance it at 68 per cent through domestic resources, 16 per cent through loans, and expects 16 per cent to come from grants.
That trend towards self-reliance is what Senator Tito Rutaremara commended at yesterday’s session, explaining that Rwandans should be happy that they can now live without too much dependence on aid.
"It’s good that aid has been reduced to 16 per cent because it gives assurance that we can now survive without aid unlike in the past when we were hugely dependent on it,” he said.
Rutaremara however urged the government to keep an eye on rehabilitating properties destroyed by recent rains and better plan ahead for future disasters by buying enough equipment for weather forecast.
As for Senator Appolinaire Mushinzimana, he urged the government to keep looking for more funds to invest in the water sector, indicating that funds allocated in the sector so far are not enough to help the government achieve its target of universal access to water by 2024.
Government has allocated slightly over Rwf49 billion for water projects in the next fiscal year 2018-2019, Rwf46 billion the following fiscal year, and Rwf51billion in the fiscal year 2020-2021.
"This money is not enough,” Senator Muhongayire said, agreeing with Mushinzimana on the need to keep investing in access to water projects.
With over Rwf600million allocated for mining research, senators commended the government’s efforts to promote the mining sector, which has become one of the biggest foreign currency earners for the country.
In line with following up on government activities, Muhongayire said that senators will continue to monitor how the budget is executed and how the investments made produce the targeted results.
The government has planned that spending of the total budget for the next fiscal year will go into funding three pillars for the country’s life, with the economic pillar taking the lion’s share of 57 per cent of the budget, social welfare claiming 27 per cent, while good governance will take 16 per cent.
The draft budget law tabled by government last Thursday still awaits final approval by parliamentarians who will pass the bill into law in the next few days as budget execution for the next fiscal year starts next month on July 1.
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