GOVT ONLY HAS E4.6BN FOR NEW PROJECTS - ECONOMIST

MBABANE – Does government have only E4.6 billion for new activities? This question was raised by an economist when analysing the 2018/2019 Appropriation Bill that was tabled by Finance Minister Martin Dlamini in Parliament on Thursday. Dlamini presented at total E21.6 billion for the upcoming year.

The economist argued that the ministry does not say anything about the total expenditure allocated for the financial year 2018/19 save for the fact that it is estimated at E21.6 billion and E2.2 billion is reserved for public debt payments and other statutory obligations.

Expenditure

“This means that the real budget stands at E19.4 billion, which is below that of yesteryears. Of the remaining E19.4 billion, E14.8 billion is allocated to recurrent expenditure, which means that the country has E4.6 billion for new activities and infrastructure development.”
The main concern here was if this amount will be enough to get the country’s economy up and running.

Of the new activities is the accommodation of elderly beneficiaries who gained eligibility in the current financial year but could not benefit due to financial constraints and the national elections.
Finance Principal Secretary, Bheki Bhembe mentioned that there was about E5.6 billion set aside for projects alone.

Expenses

He said they had to cut down on other expenses like administrative costs for some departments.
The economist said the budget touched on some of the important elements that could drive the country’s economic development.
He listed these elements as making public service delivery more agile and efficient in delivering public goods and services; ensuring efficiency and accountability in the use of public resources through the Public Finance Management Law; freeze on hiring across all sectors of the government, reducing recurrent spending and slowing capital investment; offer support to farmers; infrastructure development; social protection; human development; health; inclusive growth and financial inclusion, among others.

“From the above elements, it is easy to conclude that the minister’s budget is aimed at achieving sustainable growth and development. Additionally, the budget seems to be inclusive, of everyone except for the poor.”

Planning

The economist’s view was that there seemed not to be any mention of means and ways in which government was planning to increase the country’s economy.
“In all actuality, it seems there were no allocations that would have allowed the private sector to strive, and increase investment. Government thought about increasing the public purse in the short-term, which will be done through the VAT increment but failed to think about making this sustainable, which should have been through creating a conducive environment to thrive and increase its development.”

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