DEADLINE FOR ARREARS

MATSAPHA – Government has set an ambitious target to fully settle its E3 billion worth of debt to suppliers by the end of September.

This was disclosed by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg during an interview at the Global Money Week launch convened at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) yesterday. He said given the fact that the E21.83 billion budget for the 2019/20 financial year would be fully funded, they anticipated that there would neither be debts to suppliers nor late payments because there will be sufficient funds to pay timeously.

“At the moment we will be looking for the funds to be raised through external financing. We hope the E3 billion debts would have been fully settled by the end of September,” Rijkenberg projected. The minister mentioned that a lot of companies had been paid what was due to them since the new government assumed its duties which showed the level of commitment to ensure that all arrears were settled.        
Government last week announced that it would seek external financing to settle its arrears.

Undertaking

This undertaking was made by Rijkenberg during the 2019/20 post budget seminar convened at the Royal Swazi Spa Convention Centre last Thursday. He said government was committed to ensuring that the private sector grows in order to significantly contribute to the country’s economy.
The minister reiterated that they had to ensure that the budget was fully funded to avoid a situation where they would be prompted to delay payments as a result of the lack of funds.

Business Eswatini President Andrew le Roux thanked Rijkenberg for guiding the country through this budgetary process, and presenting a fully-financed budget in the toughest and tightest of fiscal spaces. “The private sector is anxious and deeply concerned.

I could present graphs today that show that government owes E4 billion in unfunded debts (much of that to the private sector), I could show that our expenditure is far outstripping our revenue (and that the gap is getting bigger). I could show that our recurrent expenditure is reaching, what some would call, unsustainable levels,” said Le Roux.

 

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