By Binta Jaiteh
The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs ( MOFEA) Seedy Keita revealed that Government’s Total Expenditure and Net-lending are projected to increase slightly by six percent, rising from D37.15 billion in 2023 to D39.38 billion in 2024.
Minister Keita Friday made the revelation at the National Assembly, as he submitted budget estimates for the new fiscal year 2024. This is in line with constitutional requirement for the Economic Minister to present estimates of revenues and expenditures at least 60 days before the end of each Financial Year.
In tabling the estimates for 2024 budget, the Minister affirmed that, the increase is mainly driven by increases in debt interest, which is projected to increase from D2.9 billion in 2023 to D5.9 billion in 2024 (i.e., by 76%).
“Personnel Emolument expenditures are also projected to increase from D6.10 billion (revised to D6.7 billion) in 2023 to D7.43 billion in 2024. However, Personnel Emoluments have been revised in 2023 to take into account adequate adjustments relating to unplanned recruitments.’’
“Total revenue and grants for 2024 is projected to reach D34.93 billion, representing a growth of 5 percent compared to the 2023 budget of D33.22 billion while tax revenue is expected to increase by 24 percent due to improvements in economic performance and enhancements in tax administration through digitalization and compliance.’’
Furthermore, he says a tax expenditure policy to be adopted will also help to enhance revenue by reducing exemptions, increasing collection of third-party data and improving tax compliance.
He added that, there are also on-going efforts to increase collection of Corporate Income Tax (CIT) of major contractors, particularly those benefiting from major government contracts in the construction sector and in Private Public Partnership contracts.
Preliminary engagements have begun and they are ready to regularize their tax obligations, he said.
“In addition, the current scope for rental income tax collection will be enhanced by developing a comprehensive register of owners of residential and commercial properties in order to strengthen tax compliance under this income tax category.”
He posited that, Non-Tax Revenue is expected to increase by 86 percent due to partial anticipated receipts of $10 million from arbitration award and the payment of the first tranche of $15 million from the Trans-Gambia Asset Recycling Program.
However, an additional D500 million has been factored to cater for more revenues from non- tax revenue to reflect the enhanced domestic resource mobilization drive.
According to him, the 2024 budget will factor Budget Support to the tune of D3.18 billion from development partners, compared to D2.77 billion in 2023. The bulk of the budget support is expected to come from the World Bank (USD25 million), the European Union (EUR14 million), the African Development Bank (USD7 million) Agence France Development AFD (EUR 5 million).
