Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) is tracking the monthly domestic revenue and in its second publication it looks at seven months of domestic revenue collection in 2020 and comparing same for 2019. The Network has called on the authorities to make available monthly updates regarding the impact of COVID-19 on revenue generation. “Whilst there are talks of impact of COVID-19 on the economy, there is currently no monthly updates on how revenue is being impacted in real number terms” the “2020 REVISED DOMESTIC REVENUE AND 2023 REVENUE TO GDP TARGET report says.
This information, according to BAN is important for the public so that they are prepared for challenges that may come with this impact in terms of allocations for service delivery. “It is also a way of making information on the revenue collection transparent so that citizens can understand how this impacts service delivery and be able to fairly hold duty bearers accountable for their commitments” the report says.
For their analyses, information available from the Accountant General’s Office includes four months of COVID 19 (April July 2020 and three months of non COVID 19 (Jan Mar 2020), this means, they have included broader analyses to enrich this second report.
The data used for this tracking is the published monthly statement of the Consolidated Fund, which includes actual revenues and expenditures done by the Accountant General’s department and published on the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) Website. This publication looks at data in the first seven 7 months of 2019 and the first seven 7 months of 2020
The Gross Domestic Product used for 2020 is Le 41.028 trillion (IMF Macroeconomic framework for 2020). “The government’s initial measures to slow the spread of the disease, combined with the global economic impact, have negatively impacted economic growth, raised the prices of basic commodities and undermined revenue collection” the report finds.
Combined with the need for increased expenditure to support the health and economic response, this BAN says has eroded the Government’s fiscal position and has resulted in the downwards revision of the 2020 domestic revenue target from Le 6.47trillion to Le 5.39 trillion.
Social services are financed through incomes accrued from the domestic revenue collection, so as such the report aims at finding out how (in monetary terms) the COVID 19 is impacting on domestic revenue collection and the extent to which the NRA is meeting its revised domestic revenue to GDP targets for 2020 and 2023.
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque