Finance Minister Claver Gatete will have Rwf 2,094.9 billion dedicated to finance 2017/2018 Fiscal Year
A whooping Rwf 2 trillion will be used to finance all activities planned for the 2017/2018 financial year.
On Tuesday, an extra ordinary cabinet meeting convened at Village Urugwiro and chaired by Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi, approved the draft law determining state finances for the 2017/2018 fiscal year.
The new national budget (Rwf 2,094.9 billion) is slightly higher than that of the previous fiscal year (Rwf 1,949.4 billion) representing an increase of 7.4%.
Despite a general increase in size of budget, money allocated to some institutions has been reduced.
The institutions include the Ministry of Agriculture where the budget declined by 30% due to key projects that are phasing out and decision to allocate some funds directly to implementing organs.
“There is a budget that has been channeled through the ministry yet it is meant for other implementers. We want this money to go directly to institutions it is meant for,” Minister Geraldine Mukeshimana told KT Press last week.
Mukeshimana said the closing of the projects “is not alarming.”
The Ministry expects other projects to take over the assignment of the closing projects like Rural Sector Support Project (RSSP) which built huge irrigation infrastructure among others.
The Ministry of Youth and ICT is also likely to have a budget cut of Rwf 3.8 billion, to finance the newly created Cyber Security Agency which is under Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
In the next financial year however, increase of budget is largely attributed to an upward review of civil servants’ salaries.
“The increase is attributed to rise in wages and salaries” of the public sector due for implementation in the next budget, said Claver Gatete, Minister of Finance and Economic planning while defending the draft law in parliament in April.
Government has also pumped huge resources in its ambitious “made in Rwanda” campaign.
Government wants next year to increase traditional exports by 19%, promoting non-traditional exports, growth of the service sector by 33%.
