19 Feb 2013

Minister of Finance and Development Planning has appreciated support from Members of Parliament on the proposed budget for the 2013/14 financial year.

Responding to the general debate on Monday, Mr Kenneth Matambo said discussions on the proposed budget have been constructive.

Mr Matambo commended MP for Mahalapye West, Mr Bernard Bolele whom he said made a difference in making his observations on the budget despite being a new member.

“I thank you Mr Bolele for reminding us what this budget is all about and what we were supposed to do and whether we are doing it or not,” he said.

Consequently, he indicated that there were a number of issues that were raised which he said were of sectoral nature therefore should be left to the respective ministers to address at the committee stage.

He reminded respective ministers of some points from the discussions which he said they should respond to.

One such point related to the Ministry of Agriculture with regard to the issue of cluster fencing under ISPAAD which was raised by Molepolole South MP, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe.

Mr Kwelagobe had argued that the arrangement should also cater for those farmers whose fields were not adjacent.

Also, he said an observation was made that the Ministry of Agriculture did not seem to be supporting government policies which dealt with buying of local products as well as beef marketing where a suggestion, which he supported, was made for Botswana to benchmark in Nigeria in this regard.

The finance minister also supported suggestions by some MPs for the Ministry of Transport and Communications to consider having toll gates along some roads in the country.

“Why can’t we attempt to start with one toll gate somewhere in the country particularly along the A1 or the Trans Kalahari road and not charge a lot of money,” he said.

He argued that the ministry can collect a lot of money, which he said will go towards not only building new roads but also assist in maintaining the existing ones.

On the statement made by Gaborone Central MP, Mr Dumelang Saleshando that the structure of the speech and the budget had not changed in the past 30 years, Mr Matambo explained that there were reasons why certain things do not change even after a long time.

Regarding the budget structure, Mr Matambo said there was no way any minister of finance could not talk about revenue and its allocation for expenditure by different ministries when talking about the budget.

The budget and the speech, he said, have to reflect the objectives, particularly strategies and policies which are in the national development plan.

“For as long as we did not change our national development plan we are going to be presenting annual budgets and budget statements which indicate whether we are succeeding or not in implementing the strategies and policies. We cannot avoid having to make reference to these strategies,” he explained.

The proposed budget, he said was bound not to change much because the bulk of the revenue that is expected was being allocated to on-going projects in order to complete them.

Also, he said some aspect would not change in the budget speech because the House has to be updated about the state of the economy.  The budget is an instrument by which one would try to achieve national objectives in the plan, he added.

Further, he explained that Botswana did not exist in isolation and therefore it was inescapable that a budget could be presented and not explain how the country interlinks with the rest of the world hence a chapter in the speech on global economy.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that there were some areas where there was need to change in the budget.

One such change, he said was that of the time taken to deliver the speech. He argued that some years ago it took about two and a half hours or more to deliver the speech; something he said has currently changed.

Again, he indicated that nowadays sectoral issues were left out in the budget speech for sectoral ministers to dwell on and explain about various programmes and projects they are implementing.

The other reason, he said was that the budget and the speech were prepared and finalised within a very short time following the State-of-the-Nation address by the President which he said covered almost everything.

Thus, he said it was a deliberate move that the budget speech focused more on the budget and allocation of resources. ENDS