Mozambique: Parliament approves its own 2.6 billion meticais budget for 2024, a 14% cut

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Mozambique: Parliament approves its own 2.6 billion meticais budget for 2024, a 14% cut

7:08 CAT | 08 Nov 2023

File photo: DW

The Mozambican parliament on Wednesday approved a budget of just over 2.6 billion meticais ( around US$40.7 million) for its operating and investment expenses in 2024, 14% less than in 2023.

The bill was approved only by MPs from the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), the ruling party with a qualified majority in parliament, since the benches of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third largest party, were once again absent en bloc from the plenary session of the legislative body.

“The proposal for the parliament’s budget for 2024, due to the need to contain expenses, points to a reduction of around 14 % compared to the 2023 budget,” said Hélder Injojo, a Frelimo MP and the president of the parliament’s administrative council, who presented the document.

Of the amount approved today, the largest portion goes to operating expenses, which will absorb just over 2.5 billion meticais ( 39 million US dollars).

The remainder, equivalent to US$1.7 million, will go towards investment costs, Injojo added.

Hélder Injojo said that parliament’s administrative council body’s activities in 2024 will prioritise strengthening parliament’s representative, legislative and supervisory functions and institutional capacity building.

“The instruments approved today are aimed at creating premises so that this house can fulfil its role next year, fulfilling its mission of representing the noblest interests of the Mozambican people, ensuring legislative production for the functioning of our state and ensuring supervisory action,” emphasised Hélder Injojo.

Renamo and MDM members of parliament were again absent from plenary sessions today, after boycotting the solemn act to restart the body’s work, as part of the opposition parties’ challenge to the results of the local elections on 11 October.

The leaders of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, and the MDM, Lutero Simango, had said at a joint press conference that the two parties would return to parliament, but this announcement has not yet materialised.

Source: Lusa