By: Kebba AF Touray
The Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedy Keita, has informed the legislature that the Consolidated Government Local Fund (CGLF) has reached D21.9 Billion.
Minister Keita said this on Monday, 4 March, 2024, while making an oral statement on the implementation and monitoring of the annual budget for the fiscal year 2023.
He said, “The CGLF revenue performance for the 2023 fiscal year indicates a positive outturn, reaching D21.9 billion compared to a budget of GMD19.7 Billion, representing an over performance of 11 percent.”
He explained that the main drivers of the strong performance include an improvement in direct tax collections due to an increase in VAT receipts on non-oil imports, non-tax revenue and substantial realization of program grants (budget supports) received late December, 2023.
“Total GLF Expenditure is about D20.4 billion compared to the annual budget of D20.3 billion. The main drivers for this 0.5 percent overturn are Personnel Emoluments and debt interest payments,” he said.
Minister Kieta informed lawmakers that given the over performance of domestic resources mobilization and budget support disbursement in December, the budget balance recorded a surplus of D1.5 billion.
On consolidated revenue, he reported that domestic revenue performance for the 2023 fiscal year indicates a very impressive outturn, reaching D17.81 billion, compared to a budget of D16.89 billion, representing an over performance of 5 percent.
“This impressive performance is the result of better-than-expected outturn for international trade taxes, which registered a 29 percent growth. Total revenue including program grants reached D21.9 billion compared to a D19.7 billion budget,” said Minister Keita.
By specific tax heads, he highlighted that import duty grew by 15 percent whilst import VAT recorded a growth of 47 percent.
Non-tax revenue, he continued, performed 48 percent more than expected as results of an improved revenue collection of CED (Customs and Excise Duties) by the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA).
The capital revenue, according to him, also performed more than expected by D701 million, which is attributed to the sale of Mega Bank.
On VAT on import, he said “Revenue from VAT on oil and non-oil imports has exceeded the budget by 220 percent and 122 percent, respectively. Total VAT on imports amounted to D3.4 billion, which is D1.1billion more than its budget. This growth is the outcome of increased efficiency in tax administration from the deployment of a more enhanced custom system (ASYCUDA WORLD) and the systematic reduction of fuel subsidy in 2023.”
He said that non-tax revenue recorded an over performance of 31 percent, reaching D3.89 billion compared to a budget of D2.97 billion, non-tax revenue from MDAs grow by 2 percent against budgetary target of D2.13 billion compared to an actual outturn of D2.18 billion.
