By John Bosco Tugume
Bunyoro Kingdom Parliament (Orukurato) has Wednesday approved a budget of Sh16 billion to support different Kingdom activities in the 2021-2022 financial year.
The budget presented on Wednesday morning by the Kingdom Finance, Planning and Administration Minister Robert Owagonza Abwooli is a surplus budget of Sh16.059 billion.
This is the second budget presented by the Kingdom since the kingdom was restored in 1994. The first budget was for 2019-2020 amounting to Sh9.9 billion.
Owagonza presented the projected budget revenue totaling to Sh16.059 billion while the expected expenditure is projected at Sh15, 780 billion. The virtually televised budget speech at Chambers was chaired by the Parliament Speaker Issac Kalembe and attended by less ten Kingdom officials.
The major income sources citied include Kingdom fixed deposits in Banks (sh1.6 billion), Grants and Donations (2.8 billion), land fees (sh2.7 billion), Royalties from game parks and reserves (sh2 billion), rental income (174m), Lease fees (385 million), temporary land hire (20million), Empango celebration contributions (205 million) among others.
As per the allocations, Ministry of Investment, Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance and planning, Palace Affairs and Ministry of Social Services got the biggest budget share.
Ministry of Investment was allocated sh3 billion, Office of the Prime Minister sh2.130 billion, Place Affairs sh1.795 billion, Minister of Finance and Planning sh1.660 billion.
Others are Attorney General Chambers sh1.439 billion, Orukurato sh1.181 billion, Ministry of Tourism sh913 million, Restitutions and Reparations sh217 million, Ministry of Gender sh411 million, Ministry of Culture sh342 million, Natural Resources sh940 million, Production sh307 million while Oil and Gus sh127 million
The Kingdom plans to focus on building a commercial building, establishing a Radio and Television among others priorities.
