07 Mar 2021

Ramotswa MP, Mr Lefoko Moagi, says tax collection reforms are important given Botswana’s revenue challenges.

Debating budget proposals for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for the 2021/22 financial year on Thursday, Mr Moagi said considering the declining mining revenue, economic diversification efforts must be expedited.

He said the manufacturing sector should be given incentives for exports and some should be given special dispensation.

MP Moagi further said the special economic zones should be developed because they had potential to create employment opportunities.

He further said the youths should be provided with land and suggested that buildings such ase Orapa house and Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) factory shells should house youth owned businesses.

Mr Moagi welcomed establishment of one stop border posts, saying they would reduce turnaround time and improve trade. Such services, he said, should be extended to Platjaan and Ramotswa border posts.

He said the revenue to be generated there would provide return-on-investment.

The Ramotswa legislator said he was concerned about overdesign of buildings, saying they should not be attractive, but the provision of resources to provide quality services was essential.

He said overdesign of water pipes was the reason the country was failing to provide water to many Batswana.

Mr Moagi also welcomed the Economic Recovery Transformation Plan (ERTP), but said Batswana should be at the forefront of economic growth by doing most of government tenders.

For his part, Palapye MP, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi, said he supported the budget proposals, but said there should be quarterly reports on how funds had been utilised.

He, however, was concerned over the increase of value added tax (VAT) saying it would affect the already poor people working in Ipelegeng and old age pensioners.

MP Ramogapi said the vacant posts to be eliminated should be listed lest the public sector be affected by lack of key personnel.

He further said some commercial banks continued to engage foreigners although the country had qualified citizens to be chief executive officers.

MP Ramogapi said he was worried by the constant unavailability of the Government Accounting GABS system.

Francistown East legislator, Mr Buti Billy, also welcomed the ERTP, but said it was important for the minister to ensure it was implemented on time and its implementation monitored.

He also welcomed the financial legislations introduced last year, saying the country faced challenges as it was black listed, so was attractive to investors.

MP Billy said the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) Act had loopholes, which resulted with many court cases, and this had affected development projects.

He further said the Citizen Economic Empowerment law was welcomed but said the small and micro businesses should be legally protected from large companies.

MP Billy said while some sectors were reserved for Batswana, there was a lot of fronting.

He further pointed out that the number of State Owned Enterprises must be culled as some had overlapping mandates and were not making profits.

He further said local authorities should be allowed to collect their own revenues, but was concerned that most buildings in Sowa Town and Francistown were owned by government.

MP Thapelo Letsholo of Kanye North said the finance ministry had not allocated funds for the rationalization of state owned enterprises, but people were going to lose jobs and therefore needed financial packages.

He further said the P40 million earmarked for Public Private Partnership (PPP) was exorbitant and said the country should instead benchmark from other countries rather than engage consultants.

MP Letsholo further said this was not the right time to build Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) offices at P35 million as the country was faced with COVID-19 pandemic.

The Minister of Finance and Development Planning also proposed an amount of P966 924 720 for recurrent and P460 594 304 for development budgets for the 2021/22 financial year. ends