Addis Ababa City Council approved a 31.8 billion Br budget for current 2015/16 fiscal year on July 7, 2015.
This is a 14pc increase as compared to the budget for the fiscal year 2014/15. There is a big difference in the numbers, especially when compared to 2010, in which the total budget of the city was 9.4 billion Br.
The budget is still inadequate for this large city, which requires much infrastructure, and every year the city borrows from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia because of budget shortage, one macroeconomist observed. The unused money which is returned to the city’s Finance Bureau at the end of the fiscal year only shows poor performance and not an excess availability of budget, the macro-economist added.
Projected revenue to be derived by the city from taxes in the next fiscal year is 22.9 billion Br, with 2.9 billion Br planned from non-taxable revenue; City Council revenue totals 2.9 billion Br, anticipated road funds amount to 50.5 million Br; projected grants amount to 238.1 million Br while loans amounted to 2.6 billion Br.
Recurrent budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year is 10.7 billion Br. It will be used for human resources, work processes, HIV and ADIS and for equipment purchase.
Capital budget of 19.1 billion Br will be spent on ongoing projects, including improving quality of education, new classrooms for schools, three new hospitals, four clinics, and other construction. The reserved budget is 1.9 billion Br, 6.3pc of the total.
The higher budget allocation goes to 10 major government sectors. These are roads, water, housing, health, education, polytechnic schools to support small & micro enterprises, land, police, transportation and solid waste disposal as an aspect of the thrust towards beautification and park development.
The hot issues connected with the approval of the budget were lack of good governance, specifically with regards to modern and fair tax collecting systems and bureaucracy around government bureaus, said Fitsum Mengesha, communications expert of the Addis Abeba City Administration Finance & Economic Development Bureau.
The significance of the budget is evaluated in terms of the implementation of the second growth and transformation plan, according to Fitsum.
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