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BUDGET SAME AS LAST YEAR’S

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MBABANE – Not a cent has been added to the 2018/2019 budget estimates. Instead, the Minister of Finance, Martin Dlamini, has decreased his expenditure by E183 million compared to the estimates of the previous year.
Total expenditure, according to the budget speech delivered by the minister yesterday in Parliament for the financial year 2018/19, is estimated at E21.6 billion.

This estimate includes an amount of E2.2 billion which is reserved for public debt payments and other statutory obligations. “I am pleased to announce that government has been able to deliver on His Majesty’s directive from the Throne regarding a realistic budget,” he said.


Of this amount, revenue and grants stand at E17.26 billion yet total expenditure is at E21.6 billion.
This results in a deficit of E4.3 billion.


This is the sixth consecutive deficit.
It was only during the 2012/2013 financial year when the kingdom recorded a meagre surplus of E200 million.
 Dlamini explained that government had conducted a thorough analysis of its expenditure in order to prioritise only the most pressing concerns.


“Thus, the total expenditure for this year is E183 million below the budgeted expenditure for 2017/18. This marks a decline of one per cent in total expenditure from 2017/18. A similar pattern can be observed in capital expenditure which is expected to grow at a rate of one per cent resulting from a E36 million increase from the previous year. The capital budget allocation is E5.6 billion in 2018/19,” he explained.


With government arrears projected to be at around E3 billion by the end of the current financial year, the minister said government introduced two new instruments that were offered to the market in 2016/17and 2017/18, namely, the infrastructure bond and the supplier’s bond. From these instruments, he said government was able to raise E830 million, which was utilised to pay some suppliers.
However, this amount was not sufficient to clear the stock of arrears.

 

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