𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐏

𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐄 328
🄴🅅🄴🄽🄸🄽🄶 🄴🄳🄸🅃🄸🄾🄽
JUNE 15, 2023
🇺🇬🇺🇬🇺🇬

🇺🇬 President Museveni faults URA for low tax revenues
📌President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has blamed the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for under collecting taxes, saying it’s the reason the country has continued relying on borrowing. While virtually addressing Parliament during a special session held at Kololo Independence Grounds, shortly after the 2023–2024 National Budget  had been presented by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, the President reminded URA of the need to expand tax collection. He said that the URA tax GDP ratio of 13 percent is ‘not serious’, unlike the one in Europe that stands at 39.7 percent.
“Out of the 52 trillion budget, about 17 trillion shillings shall be used to pay debts. We should borrow less or not borrow at all; with discipline, we do not have to borrow at all,” he said.
He said that a total of 39 percent of Uganda’s households are outside the money economy, describing them as spectators instead of players in money-making.
“No playing games, Uganda is unstoppable, we must work hard, our people must join the money economy using government programs,” President Museveni said.

🇺🇬  Gov’t prioritises health sector, national referrals register significant improvement
📌The Minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Matia Kasaija has said that the Government has prioritised the health sector in the next financial year. Kasaija made the remarks Thursday while presenting the National Budget speech at Kololo Independence grounds. Kasaija explained that 381 health centres have been upgraded from health centre IIs to health centre III and a significant number of health centres have undergone upgrades from health centre IIIs to health centre IVs. He said the construction and equipping of 31 new health centre IIIs in sub-counties that previously lacked any health facilities is currently at a 90% completion rate. He added that the national health referral system has been significantly improved with the addition of 143 fully operational intensive care units and 5 high independent units in regional and national referral hospitals throughout the country.
“The Mulago Super Specialized Hospital and the new state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit at Uganda Cancer Institute will be fully operational next year. This development is expected to provide specialised care to all Ugandans and significantly reduce medical referrals abroad,” he said.
Mulago Super Specialized Hospital and the new state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit at Uganda Cancer Institute will fully be operationalized next year.

🇺🇬  Government vows  to resolve plight of medical interns
📌The Government has announced that it will resolve the plight of medical interns and senior house medical officers within the next two weeks. This was announced by the Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija, while presenting the 2023–2024 National budget at Kololo Independence Grounds on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Kasaija said that the Government has allocated UGX 22 billion to settle all the outstanding arrears of medical interns and senior house medical officers in the next financial year.
“Within the next two weeks, we shall resolve the plight of all the medical interns and senior house medical officers; therefore, stay on call, we are coming,” said Minister Kasaija.

🇺🇬 Speaker Among wants Govt to reduce domestic borrowing, expand revenue collection
📌 The  Speaker of Parliament, Annet Anita Among, has urged the government to reduce domestic borrowing and focus more on the expansion of revenue collection. She made the remarks while chairing the special Parliamentary sitting held at Kololo Independence Grounds on Thursday, June 15, 2023, ahead of the 2023–2024 budget speech. According to Among, the government should consider widening tax bases in order to expand revenue collection, a move that she said will enable the government to finance domestic arrears and reduce borrowing. In the next financial year, Speaker Among urged the government to address challenges to guarantee successful implementation of the Parish Development Model, which she said will effectively empower local residents and get them into the money economy. She also cautioned accounting officers of all government departments and agencies to reduce wastage of resources by spending on activities that empower local people and ensure effective accountability of resources advanced to them.
“In the coming financial year, Parliament will not stop at appropriating budgets but will enhance oversight roles to ensure accountability,” she said.

🇺🇬 Uganda Airlines to make maiden flight with pilgrims to Mecca
📌Uganda Airlines, for the first time, will transport more than 500 Ugandan Muslims to Mecca for the annual Muslim pilgrimage on June 19, 2023, at 10:00 AM East African Time (EAT).
“This year, a total of 500 Muslims from across Uganda will be transported by Uganda Airlines aboard Airbus A330, with the first flight from Entebbe airport to Jeddah,” the Uganda Airlines statement released on June 15, 2023, read.
The Minister of Works and Transport, Hon. Edward Katumba Wamala, Muslim leaders, diplomats, and other state officials will preside over the official flag-off ceremony at Entebbe airport, according to the statement.

🇺🇬 SEMBABULE: 65 year old woman knocked dead
📌Police in Sembabule is hunting for an unidentified motorist suspected to have knocked dead one Specioza Kameruka on Thursday along Kyamabogo village in Kyabi parish, Kawanda sub county. Richard Ssemujju, a son to the deceased, says his mother’s body was found by locals bruised to almost beyond recognition. Police responded immediately and took the body to Sembabule Health Center IV for postmortem as the search for the driver, still on the run, continues.

ACROSS BORDERS
🌍🌍🌍

🌍  EABC threatens to sue Kenya over ban on Ugandan milk
📌The East African Business Council has threatened to take legal action against the Kenyan Government, through the East African Court of Justice, over the blocking of Uganda’s milk from entering the Kenyan market. The Chief Executive Officer of the East African Business Council, John Bosco Kaliisa revealed that blocking milk from Uganda to Kenya is an utter violation of the East African Common Market Protocol.

🌍  KENYA:  Azimio la Umoja boycotts National Budget reading 
📌Members of Opposition Azimio la Umoja walked out of Kenya’s  National Assembly as Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u stood up to read the  2023/24 budget statement. President William Ruto’s Government has drawn up a 3.6-trillion shilling ($25.7 billion) budget for 2023/24 with new or increased taxes outlined in a separate finance bill expected to generate $2.1 billion in revenue. The opposition members accuse the Kenya Kwanza Government of triggering a sharp drop in the value of the local currency and failing to control the soaring prices for basic necessities. Raila Odinga on Wednesday described the budget as “deeply flawed” and said it “prolongs and worsens the suffering of the people”.

🌍  DRC: EU delegation, Govt discuss upcoming election observation
📌 A European Union delegation from Belgium on Wednesday met the Congolese Minister of Communication and Media, Patrick Muyaya Katembwe in Kinshasa and discussed the observation of the elections scheduled for next December. President Felix Tshisekedi is expected to run for a second term in the upcoming DRC presidential elections which are scheduled to be held on December 20, 2023.
“We are on an exploratory mission to see if the conditions are met to deploy an electoral observation mission next December. In this context, we met the Minister of Communication to discuss communication topics around the elections,” said Vincent Ringenberg, head of the EU delegation.

🌍 NIGERIA: Head of anti- corruption body suspended indefinitely over abuse of office
📌 Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has suspended indefinitely the head of the country’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). A Government statement said the suspension followed allegations of abuse of office levelled against Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was asked to step aside in order to allow a “proper investigation into his conduct while in office”.
There have been a number of corruption allegations against the 43-year-old Bawa since he was appointed the EFCC chairman in 2021