06 Feb 2024

The total revenue collected from non-traditional sources under the revised user fees and service charges was P961.14 million for the 2022/2023 financial year.

This represented an increase of P314.56 million or 48.6 per cent compared to the pre-COVID-19 level of P646.58 million, said finance minister, Ms Peggy Serame when delivering the 2024/2025 budget proposals in Gaborone on Monday.

“This demonstrates that the implementation of additional revised fees will boost revenue levels consistent with our revenue maximisation drive,” she said.  She said despite these efforts, some ministries were not expedient enough in implementing the revised fees and service charges.

“I therefore reiterate the call to all government agencies to generate an increasing proportion of revenue from domestic sources. I also take a moment to reflect on the strides we have made in addressing budget deficits over the years, especially given the fiscal consolidation challenges we continue to face,” she said.

Minister Serame said in the past years, government had witnessed relatively high deficits, with the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 deficits reaching P11.10 billion and P16.40 billion, respectively.  “However, I wish to recognise the significant progress we have made in reducing these deficits to almost balanced budgets in recent years.” she said.

Furthermore, she said the 2021/2022 financial year, saw a significant reduction in the deficit, with the budget balance standing at a deficit of P127.89 million. Similarly, the 2022/2023 financial year showed a further significant reduction in the deficit.

Government, she said, continued to promote the concept of equal opportunity and equitable distribution of resources as well as the ease of access to development benefits by all.

She said the Gender Responsive Public Finance Management Assessment was conducted during the 2022/2023 financial year, to test the adequacy of government public finance management systems towards gender equality.

She said results of the assessment showed that more needed to be done, mainly the alignment and recognition of gender issues within the public finance management cycle and daily operational decision making.

“In addition, the coordination of gender equality policies and the implementation of the budget needs to be strengthened to produce well-structured data for tracking gender mainstreaming across all sectors,” the minister said.

In other issues, she said, as part of legislative reforms, Parliament passed a number of laws to address emerging challenges and financial hardships faced by Batswana.  The laws passed were Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, Transfer Duty (Amendment) Act, Banking Act, Retirement Funds (Amendment) Act and Income Tax (Amendment) Act. Furthermore, Minister Serame said the Botswana Meat Industry Regulatory Authority Act was enacted to liberalise and promote competitiveness of the meat industry, while the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority Act brought the regulatory and supervisory structure in line with international standards in line with our principles of prudent financial management.

She said in April 2022, government commissioned a Special Audit of the Tertiary Education Financing activities under the education ministry, which was completed in May 2023.

“While the audit took longer than anticipated due to the extensive fieldwork that covered a scope of 10 years, it revealed a number of internal control deficiencies, which include poor record keeping and use of policies, and procedures that are yet to be approved, disregard for basic financial management and governance principles, among others,” she said. Government, she said would develop a detailed roadmap to implement firm measures to address the governance and financial management gaps.

She said following the transfer of the responsibility of managing the Tertiary Education Financing tuition fees account to the Ministry of Finance, the ministry had noted improvement in the spending pattern.

“In the 2021/2022 financial year, expenditure for this item amounted to P2.29 billion out of an approved budget of P2.41 billion, while in 2022/2023 financial year, expenditure was P1.38 billion out of an approved budget of P1.44 billion. This shows a substantial decline in spending of 39.7 percent year-on-year where previously there were instances of additional funding requirements,” she said

She said the audit further provided valuable lessons on the need to improve and tighten financial management across Government and avert possible corruption. Ends