East African Community (EAC) member states will continue their push to build and improve infrastructure in the next twelve months.
While a lot of attention was paid to mitigating the causes of food shortages and key commodities like fuel all around East Africa, infrastructure took the largest share of the .
Faced with a poor and in some areas non-existent infrastructure, over the past three years, billions of shillings in allocations have been made to boost roads, rail, energy and information communication technology infrastructure to boost investment and deliver services better to the population.
Budget proposals read by the Finance Ministers of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda point to continued prioritization of infrastructure developments.
In Uganda, energy and mineral development and works and transport received 28.1% of the Ush9.8 trillion (US$4.17 billion) budget.
New Finance Minister, Mrs. Maria Kiwanuka said priority allocations would be made to power generation, road networks, irrigation schemes, schools and improvement of health infrastructure.
In the transport sector, Kiwanuka allocated Ush1,219.41 billion towards building of 378 kilometres of tarmac roads in different parts of the country including a major road to the Albertine rift where oil has been discovered and commercial development is being fast tracked.
The allocation will also lead to commencement of upgrading to bitumen of the Gulu-Atiak/Nimule and Vurra-Arua-Koboko-Oraba roads to improve road connectivity to Southern Sudan.
On rail, which President Yoweri Museveni has been keen to improve, minister Kiwanuka said rehabilitation of the Kampala - Malaba railway will be undertaken and the operational efficiency along the Kampala - Mombasa will be improved in this financial year.
She said the rehabilitation of the Tororo - Pakwach railway will also be undertaken. In addition, the rehabilitation of the Marine Vessel (MV) Pamba will be undertaken to restore wagon ferry transportation on Lake Victoria, and also operationalise the Southern Route through Mwanza.
To address the energy demand and also develop Uganda's oil and gas reserves, Kiwanuka allocated an additional Ush850 billion.
The money she said will be used to complete the 250 MW Bujagali hydropower project, commence the construction of the 600MW Karuma hydropower project, for which she allocated Ush828.6 billion.
On infrastructure development, Kenya's Finance Minister, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Roads from Ksh90.2 billion this financial year to 100.9 billion for construction and maintenance of critical roads in the country.
He also allocated another Ksh65.7 billion to the Energy Ministry to among other activities boost power generation through geothermal drilling so as to supply electricity to trading centres and schools countrywide.
Improved infrastructure, the deputy Prime Minister said, will position Kenya to reap from the expanded COMESA and other regional markets.
Tanzania Finance Minister, Mr. Mustafa Mkulo gave first priority spending to infrastructure developments, to which he allocated 11% of the budget.
This amounts to $1.8 billion (Tsh2.78 trillion) which is far higher than last year's allocation of $970 million (Tsh1,505.1 billion) - an increase of 85%. The money will go to construction of roads, railways and ports.
The second top priority is energy and minerals sector which has been allocated $340 million (Tsh539.3 billion), which is a small increase compared to $211 million (Tsh327.2 billion) in the outgoing financial year - an increase of 65%.
But to mitigate a crippling power crisis in Tanzania, Government has set aside $530.6 million to
construct 160MW emergency power plants which will increase power supply to the national grid, and thus reduce the 260MW power supply gap.
Part of that money will also be used to construct a 100MW power capacity plant at Ubungo, Dar es Salaam and a 60MW plant at Nyakato in Mwanza on the southern shores of Lake Victoria. The two plants are expected to be installed and switched on by June next year.
Rwanda Finance Minister, Mr. John Rwangombwa, in his budget, he put emphasis on infrastructure projects like roads and electricity rollout and agriculture projects like irrigation as well as health and education.
Like was the case in Tanzania, Rwanda has also imposed a tax cut on fuel to ease the rising commodity prices. Minister Rwangombwa will impose a Rf100 (16 US Cents) on the price of fuel per litre.
The Minister said the proposed tax cut on fuel will be carried out in two intervals with the first cut to be made effective July 1 while the second one will take effect at the beginning of 2012. Rwanda's prices and taxes on fuel have been among the highest among the partner states of the East African Community (EAC).
Uganda did not reduce tax on fuel like had been largely anticipated in light of the rising diesel and petrol prices. Like Kenya, Uganda removed excise duty on kerosene, which is largely used in the villages for lighting by those than cannot afford electricity.
To mitigate rising food prices, Ministers of Finance meeting at the EAC pre-budget consultations agreed to extend the stay of Common External Tariffs (CET) application to allow the importation of all types of rice at the rate of 35% instead of 75% for a period of one year for Kenya.
Ministers also allowed Kenya to import wheat grain under duty remission by gazette millers at the rate of 0%, instead of 10% granted last year as well as grant remission of duty for a period of six months on maize grain at a duty rate of 0% instead of 50%.
For Tanzania, the ministers agreed that a stay of application of 35% on wheat grain be applied and also apply the CET rate at 10% for one year.
Rwanda called for a stay of application for a period of one year with regard to CET for rice at 30%, wheat grain at 10% and wheat flour at 35%
For Uganda, extension of duty remission has been granted to the list of raw materials and industrial inputs for another one year.
Also import duty on hoes was remitted from 10% to 0% and import duty on food supplements has been reduced from 25% to 10%.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
