MONROVIA – The Plenary of the House of Representatives has unanimously voted to begin the revision process of the draft restatement budget for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.
The Plenary’s decision on Tuesday followed a communication from President George M. Weah submitting a proposed Restatement of the FY2023 National Budget in the total amount of US$ 759.4 (Seven Hundred Fifty-Nine Million Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
In his communication to the Plenary, the Liberian leader indicated that the confluence of reduction in the volume of trade, expiration of surcharge on petroleum, reduction as well as tariff on excise on petroleum and a six-month-running slump in global market prices of export commodities in the mining sector has engendered revenue underperformance in both tax and non-tax categories since the beginning of the current fiscal year.
According to President Weah, this underperformance has posed a challenge for executing the budget in the first two quarters of FY2023 and at the same time prompted early reprioritization and program deferrals in some instances.
He at the same time stated in his communication that the total adjusted recurrent expenditure is estimated at US$612,558,028 (Six Hundred & Twelve Million Five Hundred and Fifty-Eight Thousand Twenty-Eight United States Dollars) or 80.7 percent of the total proposed expenditure adding that the revised expenditure estimate for public sector investment is US$146,857,790 (One Hundred & Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Fifty-Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety United States Dollars) or 19.3 percent of the total proposed expenditure.
“It is against the foregoing that realization of the aggregate amount of US$23.5 million or 3.5 percent of the total projected Domestic revenue of US$672 million has been deemed a risk and untenable”, Pres. Weah stated.
He further stated that “consequently, to ensure that year-end spending is in line with available resources, adjustments in spending entities’ program allocation balances have been made such that the risk is absorbed by all and sundry. However, critical priority allocations for the ensuing elections and the national electricity grid have been ring-fenced”, Pres. Weah said.
Meanwhile, the Liberian leader further puts the revised revenue envelope for the proposed Restated Budget at US$759.4 (Seven Hundred Fifty-Nine Million Four Hundred Thousand US Dollars), reflecting a net decrease of US$ 23.5 million or 3.0 percent below the originally approved Budget of US$ 782.9 Million. LINA
