The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs has made it very clear that for 2024, expenditure is expected to exceed revenue by 7.2 billion dalasi. According to him,
“…with the expected disbursement in budget support in the last quarter and expenditure restrain, the deficit is expected to slow down to D5.1 billion by the year’s end against the Budget target of D4.5 billion.”
In short, it is still not clear what component of the deficit is handled by budget support and what component is to be addressed through reduction of expenditure. It is important for the government to be realistic in its budgetary allocations.
To prepare budgets without fully balancing revenue earnings and expenditure outlays would only lead to difficulties in financing services and projects throughout the financial year. In many cases difficulties would be experienced in providing funds to implement projects due to the lack of cash flow from revenue sources. This is why domestic borrowing would have to be resorted to meet expenditure requirements.
The Minister has not fully focused on the debt crisis which has resulted in a sum of 11 billion dalasi or 23 percent of the total budget being allocated for debt servicing. The country is relying mainly on taxation, borrowing and budget support to meet its needs. This is not sustainable.
Three budgetary items that require continuous monitoring are the total outstanding debt, the total sum for remittances and the trade deficit. We hope that these figures will become evident as the debate on the budget unfolds.
