Development budget at K5.7bil

By JEFFERY ELAPA
A TOTAL of K5.7 billion development budget was announced by Mi­nis­ter for National Planning and Monitoring Charles Abel during the 2013 Budget yesterday.
The 2013 development budget has been increased K1.36 billion or 31% from the 2012 budget of K4.4 billion.
It will lay the foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity by targeting priority infrastructure projects, resourcing lower levels of government in supporting service delivery and building supporting framework for transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
The increase is due to the government’s new directive to target resources at the provincial, district and LLG.
Due to priority infrastructures, the development budget will target investments that accelerate sustainable growth and feed back into the economy.
Expenditure over and above the ceiling of K2.567 billion will be financed by domestic and foreign loans (K3.810 billion).
Tax credits will remain the same at the 2012 DB level at K130 million, loans increased by K165 million (34%) and grants decreased by K180 million.
Some critical ongoing and new programmes under national expenditure have been cut from K2.032 billion to K467 million to accommodate high impact infrastructure projects across the transport and utility sectors.
Meanwhile, allocations of the 2013 DB across the sectors are (about 85%);
The budget will allocate K1.492 billion to direct financing for the provinces, districts and LLGs