Times Of Swaziland: LEGACY OF FISCAL CRUNCH?

LEGACY OF FISCAL CRUNCH?
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By Thabiso Dlamini on 27/06/2018 03:39:00


IT is quite ironic that the outgoing Members of Parliament will be leaving
government in a fiscal crunch. Yet, come October they will be cashing in on
their exit packages, leaving government in a bigger financial hole.
Even to the layman on the street – who is not privy to what really goes on
behind government’s closed doors – it is quite obvious that government is
really in a bad financial state. The G-wallet is in a crisis, and unfortunately,
the ordinary liSwati then has to suffer the consequences of the mismanagement of
public funds. You and I have to folk out more of our hard-earned money to bail
out government as you will see with the taxes that will be introduced or
increased going forward into the 2018/19 financial year.
The truth is; everyday government collects money. Think of the various border
posts where people import goods to Eswatini, add the VAT we pay on almost
everything we buy in the country, think about the fuel tax we pay when we fill
our fuel tanks and think of the income tax every working person pays to
contribute to government’s revenue streams.
In short, there is enough money trickling into the G-wallet on a daily basis,
yet it seems to quickly evaporate through the many government financial
obligations that have culminated into the current fiscal crunch.
We pick up from the grapevine that even to meet some of these financial
obligations, such as civil service salaries, among many other cash-vapourisers
within government, perhaps some monies make their way into the G-wallet through
hush-hush undercover streams from the Public Service Pension Fund.
Maybe there are other hush-hush funds government is tapping into that we will
soon learn of? Whether this is true or not, it is clear that government is
playing a game of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which is completely unnecessary and
crippling the economy as whole.Why not use the money collected through SRA for
investments in the economy that can increase people’s incomes and hence
contribute to more money headed for the G-wallet?
Just like the rest of us who are feeling the pinch of an increasing cost of
living in Eswatini, government too, is living from paycheque to paycheque. To
get out of the financial hole, government needs additional income. This is
because all the money being collected is coming in already having been spent.
It would be a different story if the country would be facing a fiscal crunch
having paid for things that really matter, for example, the Phalala Fund,
equipment, doctors, and medicines in our own hospitals, and diverting more money
to offer scholarships to deserving students and making sure that free primary
school fees allotments are made on time.
The situation is getting to a point where it is just exhausting to read on front
page news that government hasn’t paid for something critical with the
different public services, let alone the money owed to South African hospitals.
Would it hurt to prioritise E120 million out of the E14 billion that government
collects from the economy? Would it really hurt to prioritise the health of our
people among all the other monies wasted, for example, through fuelling
government vehicles running useless errands and meetings across the country?
I think we all want to stand behind government and support it in developing our
country so that everyone can enjoy an improved standard of living.
Everyone wants to pay tax if the tax we pay will in turn build us hospitals,
make sure that no high school graduate misses out on tertiary education because
they cannot afford to pay tuition fees, pay a cost of living monthly grant to
the elderly, and on the whole give us quality and timely public services.
It is not really pleasant to be contributing to the G-wallet in all the taxes
that we pay when our own personal lives and standard of living keeps regressing
to the gutter. Every bit of money that government takes from our pockets should
be to make our lives richer and more comfortable.
I want to believe that nothing written here is news to government. Government
must simply do the right thing and start spending money on programmes/items that
matter in terms of improving every single person’s life in the kingdom and
stop stifling the development strides the country has taken since independence.
With a new government and Parliament coming into office in the next few months,
government must give people something positive to talk and write about,
something positive that can increase the number of businesses and employment
opportunities in the country, and the ability for every liSwati to be able to
earn a decent income without having to subsidise SRA’s ridiculous monthly tax
collection targets.
Yes, government must and should collect tax to push the country forward, but let
us see that money being put into good use! Government is perfectly capable of
managing a realistic and successful budget.