02 Feb 2016

The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo, says total revenues and grants for the 2014/15 financial year amounted to P55.90 billion, an increase of P4.36 billion over the revised budget of P51.54 billion.

He said the performance was underpinned by the increase in mineral and Bank of Botswana revenues. “Mineral revenues increased due to more than expected dividend receipts, while an extra amount of P1.7 billion was received from Bank of Botswana as additional dividends and residual income,” he said.

The minister said total expenditure and net lending declined from the revised budget of P51.26 billion to P50.56 billion mainly due to under expenditure in the development budget. He said therefore the budget outturn for 2014/15 financial year was a surplus of P5.34 billion or 3.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product which is higher than a marginal surplus of P280.83 million projected in the revised budget for the same year. Minister Matambo said total revenues and grants for 2015/16 of P51.76 billion represents a decrease of P3.62 billion or 6.5 per cent, from the original budget of P55.38 billion.

He said the decline was due to the fall in mineral revenue, which is expected to decrease by P1.85 billion. Customs and Excise revenue and Value Added Tax (VAT) are also estimated to decline from their original budget by P885.41 million and P1.17 billion respectively.

Mr Matambo said the decline in Customs and Excise revenue emanates from the appreciation of the Pula against the Rand while VAT revenue declined due to unexpected substantial refund claims, especially from mining companies. On the expenditure side, the estimates show an increase of P1.81 billion to P55.96 billion from the original budget estimate of P54.15 billion.

He said the increase was due to supplementary funding of P423.36 million under recurrent and P1.39 billion for the development budget. The decline in revenue and increase in expenditure has resulted with a revised deficit of P4.20 billion or minus 2.8 per cent of GDP compared to the original surplus of P1.23 billion. Ends