Times Of Swaziland: GOVT SUPPLIERS TO WAIT A BIT LONGER

GOVT SUPPLIERS TO WAIT A BIT LONGER
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BY KWANELE DHLADHLA  on 16/10/2019 01:21:00


MBABANE – Hold your horses! Businesses will have to wait a bit longer before
their much anticipated payments for services rendered to government eventually
get paid.
This is despite an undertaking earlier in the year where government announced
that it was in the final stages of securing E3 billion loans to fully settle
arrears by the end of September.
The State had disclosed that they were engaging a number of financiers, both
local and external, with a view to pay up the arrears with intent to ultimately
bolster Eswatini’s economy for the better.
When asked whether they had been able to meet the September deadline as earlier
promised, Minister of Finance Communications Officer Setsabile Dlamini could
only say: “raising money for the settling of arrears is work in progress.
However, it still has to go through Parliament.”
Dlamini assured that a detailed austerity measures report would be issued soon.
Precise
However, she was not precise in terms of the actual date when the report would
be issued.
Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg is on record reiterating in various fora that
government remains committed to ensuring that the private sector grows.
The minister mentioned that since he assumed office, about a year ago, they had
managed to pay up to E1 billion and continued to make payments as and when
enough revenue has been collected to pay off some of the debts.
Soon after assuming office, Rijkenberg said the State ensured that the E21.83
billion budget for the 2018/19 financial year was fully funded to avoid a
situation where they would be prompted to delay payments as a result of the lack
of funds.
At the last update, it had been reported that arrears were at around E3 billion.
Business Eswatini President Andrew le Roux applauded Rijkenberg for guiding the
country through the budgetary process, and presenting a fully-financed budget in
the toughest and tightest of fiscal spaces.
He said the budget was being called the best in 30 years by some commentators.
The president said they were fully aware that the country was faced with very
real financial challenges, and that this trend had been continuing for several
years now.
“In the context of a tighter lending environment, where it is going to become
much harder and much more expensive to borrow, the bottom line is that we are
spending more than we are earning,” le Roux noted.
In his presentation of the integrated annual report, Central Bank of Eswatini
Governor Majozi Sithole further noted that the economic activity was projected
to decelerate to 1.4 per cent in 2019 from 2.4 per cent in 2018.
Sithole said this was largely due to worsening fiscal challenges. He said the
main sectors that were projected to perform poorly include construction,
wholesale and retail and general public administration.
Forward
He said going forward, the gross domestic product (GDP) were projected to
increase by 2.9 per cent in 2020 and then retreat to 1.3 per cent and 1.7 per
cent in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The governor said according to official provisional estimates released by the
Central Statistics Office, the GDP, which is a measure of economic activity, was
estimated to have expanded by 2.4 per cent in 2018 compared to 2.0 per cent in
2017.