EAC Council of Ministers chairman Kirunda Kivejinja (centre), Burundi's EAC minister Isabelle Nahayo (right) and Tanzania Deputy Minister for foreign affairs and EAC Co-operation Dr Susan Kolimba during the presentation of 2018/19 budget to the East African Legislative Assembly sitting in Nairobi on June 4, 2018. PHOTO | MOSES HAVYARIMANA | NMG

The East African Community has revealed that South Sudan and Burundi are the main defaulters in contributing to the regional block’s budget.

This comes after the body revised its budget to 99.7 million dollars on Monday at its assembly sitting in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Chairman of the EAC Council of ministers, Kirunda Kivejija, who presented the estimates, said a 10 million dollar slash has been attributed to reviewed expenditure targets due to poor remittances by South Sudan and Burundi.

Each partner state is expected to contribute 8.3 million dollars per financial year and the remittances are expected on December 31.

According to the Tanzanian Citizen news outlet, Dr. Kivejinja says the Secretariat was being realistic in its expectation following defaults by the member states.

EAC predicts growth in the region at an average of 5%, but the economies of Burundi and South Sudan will remain subdued.

South Sudan was admitted into the East African Community as the sixth member state in 2016.