The evolution of the world economic situation characterised by resumption in activities, favourable commodity export prices and dollar appreciation incidentally reverberated on the national economy. According to the mid-year report on budget execution published by the Ministry of Finance, in spite of the favourable terms of trade the world economic changes ushered in and the bouncing back of activities at the national level, revenue collection barely witnessed an increase worth noting. One main reason has been advanced for this state of affairs; excessive accumulation of tax and customs dues by some giant companies.
Fiscal revenue collected six months into the year increased 0.2 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Revenue collection for January through June increased by FCFA 1.9 billion to FCFA 924.3 billion up from FCFA 922.4 billion during the same period a year earlier, the report stated. The increase has been ushered in by a corresponding increase in oil revenue which stood at FCFA 212 billion compared to FCFA 187.2 billion last year, indicating a percentage swell of 13.2. The situation would have been different were the budget execution to depend entirely on non-oil sector which witnessed an undesirable decrease in performance. According to the Ministry of Finance, non-oil sector produced FCFA 712.3 billion down from FCFA 735.2 billion within the past six months. This indicates a drop of 22.9 per cent. Budgetary forecast for the sector was FCFA 793.5 billion.
The tax sector, one of the two main non-oil sources on which the State greatly depends, collected FCFA 15.4 billion less than it did last year and FCFA 51.7 billion short of what was earmarked. The customs sector on its part almost stagnated in performance, collecting FCFA 227.9 billion against FCFA 228.4 a year earlier.
Government spending increased 5.2 percent from FCFA 976.3 billion last year to FCFA 1,027.4 billion, on corresponding FCFA 51 billion investment expenditure and FCFA 41.7 billion on current expenditure the report said. Revenue forecast for the second quarter was FCFA 1003.1 billion while forecast for expenditure stood at FCFA 1,308.6 billion, the report said.
Debt servicing dropped 29.2 percent or FCFA 47.2 billion from FCFA 161.5 billion a year earlier to FCFA 114.3 billion. Debt servicing forecast by end of June was FCFA 149 billion External debt payment dropped to FCFA 42.6 billion from FCFA 48.3 billion during the same period last year, the report said. Internal debt payment equally decreased to settle at FCFA 41.5 billion to FCFA 71.7 billion against FCFA 113.2 billion the year before.
