28 Feb 2013

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has requested Parliament to approve its recurrent and development budget proposals for the 2013/14 financial year amounting to P829 578 280.

Presenting her ministry’s request on Wednesday, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Dorcas Makgato-Malesu observed that P824 286 280 would be used for the recurrent budget and be shared amongst the ministry’s departments and parastatal organisations.

The request, she noted, had increased by P294 282 690 compared to the 2012/13 allocation of P530 003 590. She explained that the parastatals (LEA, BOBS, BITC, CEDA and Competition Authority had been allocated P656 333 800 of the total request.

Furthermore, she mentioned that P64 156 230 had been allocated to the ministry headquarters, P36 743 490 for Department of Co-operative Development, P24 456 740 for the Department of Trade and Consumer Affairs, P15 558 000 for Industrial Affairs Department while P15 103 880 goes to the Office of the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property.

The Department of International Trade, she noted, would be allocated P11 934 140.

She told Parliament that in the development budget, P5 292 000 had been allocated and this represented a decrease of P408 000 below the 2012/13 budget of P5 700 000. She further said that P3 642 000 would be used for the ministry of trade and industry information management system.

This, she said, entailed the automation of the annual returns process and interfacing of the companies and business names administration systems with those of the Botswana Unified Revenue Services, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board as well as the Civil and National Registration System.

 She explained that a budget of P1 650 000 was requested to settle the final account for the Co-operative Training Centre at Sebele and to procure vehicles for the centre. ENDS