Minister of Finance tables Provisional Budget

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha has on Friday presented in Parliament a K511, 296, 522, 794 provisional budget .

According to Mwanamvekha, the money will be withdrawn from the consolidated fund for the purpose of meeting expenditures necessary to carry out the services of the government from July 1, 2019 to 31 October 2019 or until the Appropriation Act 2019 comes into force.

He said the provisional budget has been presented considering that cabinet was constituted on 20th June, 2019 and as a result, there was limited time to bring the full budget before Parliament and have the bill passed before July 1, 2019.

Among other expectations in the budget, inflation is expected to average 8.0% during the period under review, the exchange rate is expected to average K750 to one US dollar, government is to reduce domestic borrowing from 4.1% of GDP to 0.3%.

Mwanamvekha also said ongoing projects will be provided for in the provisional budget, saying provisions for new projects will be made in the main budget.

The provisional budget has total revenue and grants amounting to K461.2 billion of which K410.5 billion is domestic revenues and K50.7
billion are grants.

Total expenditure and net lending amounts to K511.3 billion for the period of four months.

Wages and salaries are projected at K135 billion, representing 34.3 % of the 2018/2019 approved personal emoluments figure of K393.6 billion.

According to the finance Minister, the estimate has taken into consideration the recent promotion of teachers and security officers.

He said development expenditure has a total provisional of K116.5 billion of which K98.7 billion is foreign financed while K17.9 billion
is domestically financed.

The provisional budget has a net domestic borrowing of K16.5 billion.

This is much lower as compared to K84.3 billion for the same period in the 2018/2019 budget.