Times Of Swaziland: HISTORIC: E11BN SACU RECEIPTS

HISTORIC: E11BN SACU RECEIPTS
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Timothy Simelane on 24/01/2023 08:39:00


MBABANE – The country’s cashflow crisis will be significantly reduced with a
historic 102 per cent increase in receipts from the Southern African Customs
Union (SACU).
Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said yesterday that the country would get
E11.75 billion in SACU receipts, which is a major increment from the E5.8
billion received in the previous financial year. Economists have said the
development presented an opportunity for the State to fund core social
development initiatives, such as tertiary education, drugs in hospitals and to
reduce the debt burden.
Revenue
SACU receipts refer to the money that SACU member States share annually from the
revenue they generate through the collection of customs duties. The amount due
for each member State is determined by a formula approved by a council, mostly
formed by ministers of Finance. The SACU receipts form one of the country’s
major revenue generators after tax collection. Minister Rijkenberg said this was
the highest share that the country had ever received from the regional bloc. He
hinted that the nation could expect an increased budget as a result of this
development because, over the years, government had been implementing aggressive
expenditure cuts as a means to bring the fiscus to a sustainable path.
He said one of the contributing factors was the higher than projected outturn of
the 2021/22 Common Revenue Pool (CRP). Surplus from this pool will be paid
together with the 2023/24 revenue share. Another factor was the 25 per cent
increase in the projected size of the CRP for 2023/24 compared to 2022/23. The
minister said an increase in Eswatini’s share of total intra-SACU imports from
9.6 per cent in the revenue sharing framework for 2022/23 to 10.8 per cent in
2023/24 was also a contributing factor. “This means that the measures that the
ministry has been implementing in order to enhance intra-SACU imports have
started paying off,” he said.
Cars
One of the measures the minister spoke about was the Used Motor Vehicle Permit
Specification Notice of 2020, which imposed restrictions on the importation of
cars older than eight years. At the time, the minister had said the move was
based on safety, environmental and human health. However, one of the direct
benefits to the notice was the upsurge in SACU receipts that the country was now
benefitting, two years later. Taking questions from this newspaper, the minister
said the reduction of the age on grey imports was one of the means that
government had applied to improve the fiscus. “We have been trying to, not at
all, stop the fuel coming into the country from Mozambique. We definitely need
to continue to import fuel (from Mozambique), between 20 and 30 per cent. It was
getting close to 50 per cent but, we have been trying to move a percentage to SA
to benefit our SACU receipts,” he said.
He clarified that the recent shortage of fuel had nothing to do with the
ministry’s efforts to consolidate SACU receipts but was purely caused by
logistical challenges. “We are talking of shipping to storage to trucking.
That is what caused the fuel shortage,” he said.