Rukungiri District Tables UGX 62.5 Billion Draft Budget for 2026/27 Financial Year

Rukungiri: Rukungiri District Council has presented a draft budget estimate of UGX 62,509,689,000 for the Financial Year 2026/2027, showing a slight increase from last year’s approved budget of UGX 62,498,783,000. The new budget reflects an increase of UGX 10,906,000.

The draft budget was tabled before the district council on March 27, by the Secretary for Finance, Planning and Administration, Hon. Gideon Ntungura. The council is expected to discuss and approve the budget in the next sitting scheduled for 8th May 2026.

According to the draft, the education sector takes the largest share of the budget at UGX 30,293,087,000, followed by administration with UGX 12,046,870,000 and health with UGX 9,926,204,000. Other allocations include UGX 4,411,117,000 for production and marketing, UGX 1,871,049,000 for roads and engineering, and UGX 978,640,000 for water.

The finance department has been allocated UGX 410,898,000, while statutory bodies will receive UGX 938,703,000. Natural resources has been allocated UGX 682,205,000, planning UGX 411,363,000, and community-based services UGX 322,156,000. Trade, industry and local development will receive UGX 129,994,000, and internal audit has been allocated UGX 87,403,000.

The district’s wage bill stands at UGX 35,909,694,000, accounting for 57 percent of the total budget. Most of the wage allocation will go to education, which takes UGX 23,266,026,124, followed by health at UGX 7,144,198,096 and production at UGX 1,740,092,124. The district unconditional grant wage is allocated UGX 3,759,377,725.

The Higher Local Government will take UGX 61,094,470,000, while Lower Local Governments are allocated UGX 1,415,219,000 under non-wage.

However, the draft budget does not provide for gratuity arrears and salary arrears. This comes despite unpaid gratuity for the financial year 2024/2025 and earlier requests made to the Ministry of Finance.

District leaders noted that the development component remains low, which continues to affect capital development and service delivery in the area. They expressed hope that additional funding from central government will be considered and incorporated before the final budget is approved.