a. A budget consists of the income (revenue and grants) on the one hand and expenditure and net-lending on the other hand.
b. The last National Assembly had approved a national budget for the year 2022 in November 2021. However, the new Minister of Finance has gone to the new National Assembly to seek the approval of the National Assembly of a revised budget.
c. Total revenue and grant for the revised fiscal year 2022 is projected to reach D26.6 billion (about 11 percent decline compared to the approved budget of 2022).
d. The decline in the revised budget is mostly on account of poor performance in tax, non-tax and budget support grants.
In short, there has been a fall in imports resulting in a fall in tax on import, otherwise tax revenue.
Furthermore, there is a fall in non-tax revenue of 1.47 billion dalasis derived mainly from petroleum.
A sum of 30 million dollars (1.6 billion dalasis) expected from the EU and the African Development Bank as budget support to cushion the budget deficit has not been forthcoming.
e. On the other hand, total expenditure and net-lending is revised from the approved estimates of D32.2 billion in 2022 to D31.1 billion for the revised budget of the 2022 fiscal year, representing a decline of D3.4 percent, whereas personnel emolument expenditures on the other hand are projected to increase from D5.1 billion to D5.7 billion.
In short, revising the budget has still not solve a major problem. Whereas total expenditure and net-lending stands at 31.1 billion dalasis revenue and grants are projected at 26.6 billion dalasis, giving a budget deficit of 4.5 billion dalasis.
This is not sustainable. The government cannot continue to rely on heavily on tax revenue.
