By Melanie Aanyu,

The Ministry of Finance has revealed that the budget for the financial year 2022/2023 will mainly focus on addressing health and economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 global pandemic, among other key issues.

Presenting a statement to the Budget Committee on Wednesday, 27 April 2022, the Minister of State for Finance, Henry Musasizi, said that the government will focus on the full economic recovery of the country to pre-pandemic levels.

This, he said, will be done through socio-economic transformation of 39 percent households in the subsistence economy to a money economy, and strengthening the areas of health and economic infrastructure.

The Minister said that despite the current rise in prices of commodities, inflation remains in an acceptable range.

He further submitted that the tax revenue-to-GDP ratio is at 13.2 percent, which is above the National Development Plan target of 12 percent, which dropped because of the pandemic.

However, the Chairperson of the Budget Committee, Patrick Isiagi, said that in the proposed Shs47 trillion national budget, Agriculture, which is the backbone of the economy, is being neglected.