Mozambique: Sovereign Fund not on the agenda as Parliament resumes sitting

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Mozambique: Sovereign Fund not on the agenda as Parliament resumes sitting

4:04 CAT | 06 Oct 2022

Renamo deputy Viana Magalhaes. [Photo: A Verdade]

The VI Ordinary Session of the IX Legislature of the Assembly of the Republic began this Thursday (October 6) but, among the 30 matters listed on the agenda, there is no draft Sovereign Fund Law, for the management of revenues from liquefied natural gas that is already being produced in Rovuma basin.

“This government is delaying the creation of the Sovereign Fund because it does not want the resources of all of us to be managed in a transparent way,” the head of the largest opposition party parliamentary bench, Viana Magalhães, alleged.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic, Esperança Bias, said that “in this session, the highest point will be the presentation of the Annual Information of the Head of State to the Nation (…) we will appreciate, among other matters, information from the Government and Questions to the Government, the draft Law on the 2023 Economic and Social Plan and State Budget, the 2021 General State Account , the draft law establishing the legal framework for Bank Accounts, the proposal to revise the Foreign Exchange Law, the Annual Information of the Ombudsman, the proposal to revise the Law on Vocational Education, the proposal for a Program of Activities of the Parliament and the Parliament’s budget for the year 2023 and the proposal for a law to revise Law nº 5/2022 of 14 February with a view to correcting the inconsistencies and fair application of the Single Salary Table”.

READ: Mozambique: 30-point agenda as parliament to resume sitting October 5 – December 15

Mozambique: Sovereign Fund proposal completed – Notícias

Strangely, absent from the 30-point parliamentary agenda is the draft bill for the creation and implementation of the Sovereign Fund of Mozambique. According to a promise by President Filipe Nyusi, the Sovereign Fund “should be operational before the start of the flow of revenue that will come from the liquefied natural gas production projects located in the Rovuma Basin”.

This week, the Italian oil company Eni started to liquefy the first natural gas from the Coral Sul field, with first export expected to take place in October. For 2022, state revenue of 94 million Meticais is forecast, rising to 1.25 billion Meticais in 2023.

Renamo was not the only party to highlight the absence of this law, fundamental for the future of Mozambique. “We continue to be spectators instead of authors of the creation of our wealth based on leveraging our potential with regard to the wealth of the country’s soil and subsoil, as well as the sea that God has given us, so here and now we vehemently reiterate the urgency of creating the Sovereign Fund,” said Viana Magalhaes.

READ: Sovereign Fund to manage Mozambique’s LNG riches takes shape – Bloomberg

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade