Maputo, 8 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday voted to approve the government’s Plan and Budget (PESOE) for 2024.
The vote on the first reading of the budget was along party political lines. All 165 deputies from the ruling Frelimo Party in the parliamentary chamber voted in favour of the budget, while all 37 opposition deputies, from Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) voted against.
The vote was a blind test of loyalty, since the deputies cannot possibly have known what they were voting on. This was because, as one opposition deputy, Fernando Bismarque of the MDM, pointed out, the budget distributed to the deputies was not the same document as the one which went to a vote.
For on Monday, the government suddenly changed the PESOE – it introduced a 52 page set of addenda, which changed the budgetary figures and graphs, and increased significantly the 2024 target for public expenditure.
For example, the percentage of the budget allocated to health jumped from 5.5 per cent to over 14 per cent. Total projected public expenditure rose from 542.7 billion meticais (about 8.5 billion US dollars, at the current exchange rate) in the original document to 567.8 billion in the amended version.
Given the extent of the changes, one might have expected the debate on the PESOE to be postponed by a few days, to allow deputies time to absorb the government’s addenda – but the parliamentary management did not change the agenda, and pushed ahead with a two day debate on PESOE on Wednesday and Thursday.
In the final moments of the debate, Frelimo deputies paid no attention to the government’s addenda, but repeated clichés many of which could have come from the budget debates of previous years.
Thus Lucinda Malema declared that PESOE is vital because it expresses the government’s responsibility for promoting the welfare of Mozambicans, and is an integral part of the government’s five year programme for the period 2020-2024.
She declared “investments will be made in important sectors such as health, education, agriculture, the reconstruction of Cabo Delgado, and the return of the population from regions where they were in the hands of terrorists”.
The opposition did not share this rosy view. Renamo deputy Jose Samo Gudo, claimed that, under Frelimo rule, Mozambique would be transformed “into a failed state”.
The plan and budget, he said, “contain a hecatomb of irregularities”, and so Renamo was voting against.
He was particularly irritated that, in a country rich in timber, pupils in many schools were still sitting on the floor.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, forecast a budgetary deficit for 2024 of more than 159.2 billion meticais, equivalent to 10.4 per cent of Mozambique’s GDP. In the 2023 budget, the deficit had been 115 billion meticais.
Tonela said that soaring deficit is partly due to debt servicing of 115.1 billion meticais (7.5 per cent of GDP),
To cover the deficit, the government will depend on grants and loans. Tonela said the government expects to receive 83.3 billion meticais in foreign grants, and 29.5 billion in foreign loans.
The rest of the PESOE deficit will be covered by domestic debt, through the issue of high interest bearing treasury bonds, which are mostly purchased by Mozambican commercial banks.
Winding up the parliamentary debate, Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane declared that the government “is committed to the welfare of all”.
“In 2024 our GDP will grow by 5.5 per cent”, he forecast, “in an extremely difficult context”.
The average international growth rate was forecast at 2.9 per cent, and the African growth rate at four per cent. “In 2020 our economy shrank by 1.3 per cent, but next year we shall grow by 5.5 per cent”, said Maleiane. “That is a reason for any Mozambican to feel happy”.
He promised that the government will allocate more resources “to the sectors with the greatest impact on the life of the population, such as the supply of drinking water, sanitation, roads and bridges, access to electricity, education, health and social protection”.
Maleiane also pledged that the government will take measures to improve the business environment and to consolidate macro-economic and financial stability.
(AIM)
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