Mozambique: Parliament approves budget on first reading with united opposition

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Mozambique: Parliament approves budget on first reading with united opposition

6:21 CAT | 05 Dec 2018

Photo: Lusa

Mozambique’s parliament on Wednesday approved on its first reading the Frelimo government’s state budget for 2019, with deputies from the two opposition parties, Renamo and MDM, all voting against.

The budget bill was passed with 132 votes from Frelimo deputies, whose majority in the assembly also saw the Economic and Social Plan approved. The 63 members of Renamo present in the session voted against both, as did the 11 deputies for the MDM.

Frelimo’s position on the bills was summarised in a statement issued by deputy Danilo Teixeira that said that would boost economic growth and support for the less well-off.

“Despite the adverse economic context that the country is experiencing, the state budget approved today is consistent with the growth goal that the government proposes,” Teixeira said.

Renamo, for its part, described the budget as unrealistic and bearing little relation to the needs of the country’s people.

“We have rejected the state budget because it does not bring anything new in relation to the failed budgets of past years,” said António Timba, reading out the party’s voting statement.

The MDM opposed the two bills on the basis that the government favours issuing debt to finance the deficit, so aggravating public indebteness.

“The use of internal indebtedness to finance the deficit is a solution that has aggravated the conditions of access to credit, because it has the government competing with the private sector for funding,” said Fernando Bismarque, in reading out the voting statement of the third-largest party.

The budget now approved foresees revenues of 249 billion meticais (€3.58 billion) and total expenditure of 340 billion meticais.

Most of the spending, at 57.8%, is earmarked for operating expenses, with 30% for investment and 12.2% for financial operations.

The overall deficit as a percentage of GDP is expected to rise from the 8.1% predicted for this year to 8.9% in 2019, mainly due to the extra expenditure on the general elections of 15 October and the start of investments in the area of natural gas.

In 2017, according to the official state accounts, the deficit was 4.6% of GDP.

The documents are now to be voted on in the committee stage, with the final reading scheduled for Thursday.

Source: Lusa