SACU MEMBERS SHARE INCREASED

MBABANE- SACU member States have shared an increased purse in the past year.

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is made up of five countries of Southern Africa that include Botswana, Eswatini , Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. In the 2020 annual report, it was reported that the total payments to the member States from the Common Revenue Pool in the 2019/20 financial year amounted to E105.70 billion compared to E93.34 billion in the 2018/19. This translates to an increase of 13.2 per cent.

Paid

All customs and excise collected in the common customs area are paid into South Africa’s National Revenue Fund. The revenue is shared among members according to a revenue-sharing formula, as described in the agreement. South Africa is the custodian of this pool.  Eswatini’s share is said to have risen from E5.99 billion to E7.13 billion, which is the second lowest behind Lesotho. Lesotho’s figures for the financial years under review were at E5.67 billion and E6.92 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, according to the report, deficit from operating activities was still high but slightly fell to about E19.42 million when compared to the previous year’s figures of E21.2 million.

The SACU report, on the other hand, attributed the growth of 1.3 per cent in 2019 to strengthened manufacturing activity because of improved export demand. “Growth is forecast to rise to 2.6 per cent in 2020 supported by fiscal relief, rebounding exports, and improved domestic demand. In respect to balance of payments, improved international trade resulted in a current account surplus rising from E1.3 billion recorded previously to E4.6 billion in 2019 as manufacturing exports soared,” shared SACU. SACU Executive Secretary Paulina Mbala Elago said the year under review was yet another exciting but also challenging one for SACU amid slowing global growth and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic during the last half of the year.

Key

The latter has far reaching implications and adverse effects on many sectors of the SACU economies. Key among them being tourism, manufacturing, selected services sectors, transport global value chains and trade, which will lead to unemployment and put people’s lives and livelihoods at risk. The COVID-19 pandemic will have adverse socio-economic impact across the region, this will require policy makers to identify and implement measures that will assist in economic recovery. Analysts say the impacts of lockdowns on SACU revenue will only show in subsequent years.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: