February 7, 2018: As provided for under article 41 of Organic Law N°12/2013/OL of 12/09/2013 on State Finances and Property, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Claver Gatete today tabled before Parliament the 2017-18 revised budget proposal.

Presenting the revised budget proposal, Minister Gatete told parliamentarians that the proposal is part of the revised medium term macro-economic framework that aims to continue the fiscal consolidation and prudent borrowing policies to make debt and external imbalances sustainable.

According to the proposal, the budget will be revised upwards by Frw 20.5 billion from Frw 2,094.9 billion approved by Parliament in June last year to Frw 2,115.4 billion. The changes will affect both resources and expenditures.

On the resources side, Government expects a net increase in domestic revenues of Frw 669.4 billion, which is Frw 6.5 billion higher than the projection of FRW 662.9 billion in the original budget. The increase comes from the sale of treasury bills and bonds as well as a drawdown from strategic fuel reserves. External grants disbursements were on track registering an amount of FRW 168.3 billion against Frw 168.8 billion projected for the period

On the expenditure front, Government expects an increase of Frw 8.7 billion from Frw 1,033.8 billion of the budget estimates to Frw 1,042.5 billion. The rise will mainly cover salaries and operation expenses of newly created ministries and agencies.

Development budget is expected to increase by Frw 9.8 billion from Frw 772.7 billion in the original budget estimates to Frw 782.5 billion. The mark-up will finance the construction of strategic fuel storage facilities, construction of dams and irrigation systems for increased food production, land acquisition to facilitate medical related investment for Masaka hospital, provision of basic infrastructure for Gako beef farm project as well as Government subsidy for Ntare School of Excellence project among others.

Government plans to raise its net lending budget by Frw 18.9 billion from Frw 159.1 billion in the original budget to Frw 178 billion. The increase will finance Rwandair expansion as well as the restructuring of Government investment in Marriot hotel.