The Honorable House of Representatives has mandated its Ways, Means and Finance Committee to begin hearings into Fiscal Year 2024 Draft National budget.
The proposed resource envelope for the FY2024 budget is projected at US$692.4million, of which Tax Revenue accounts for US$540.2 million or 78 percent and Non-tax Revenue of US$109.8 million or 16 percent.
A statement issued by the House’ Press Bureau says externally sourced revenue is projected at US$42.4 million or 6 percent of the revenue estimate Compared to the FY2023 budget outturn of US$793.3 million, the FY2024 budget represents a decrease of 12.7 percent.
According to a communication from President Joseph Boakai to the House of Representatives, the fall is mainly attributed to a decrease of US$144.6 million in external financing.
“𝑰𝒏 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕𝒔 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒖𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑼𝑺 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑵𝒐𝒏𝑻𝒂𝒙 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒖𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑼𝑺 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒓” Pres. Boakai alerted.
The instrument says the proposed expenditure for FY2024 is shared between recurrent expenditure of $640.5 million or 93 percent and public sector investment projects (PSIP) is US$51.9 million or 7 percent.
Among the key recurrent expenditures are debt services to commercial banks arising from constructure projects and to multilateral institutions in order to unlock support to medium-term development priorities. Other recurrent expenditures are compensation of employees, operational goods and services for government entities and subsidies, grants and transfers to governmental and non- governmental institutions in the health and education and social service sectors.
The Liberian Leader informed the Honorable Speaker and Members of the Legislature that the successful execution of this budget in a credible fashion will require that government takes certain deliberate actions collectively beginning with fiscal discipline as the guiding principle for budget execution.
“Secondly, heads of spending entities must exercise their fiduciary responsibility to ensure the highest degree of fiscal probity and accountability as the Budget Holders. We must be reminded about the requirements of the PFM Law that spending entities make periodic reports to facilitate routine audits. Adherence to these requirements has been the missing link in our budget execution and must be restored. I urge heads of spending entities to lend their fullest cooperation as we endeavor to depart from business as usual to pursue a path of transparency and accountability in public financial management”, the President added.
Meanwhile, the committee is expected to report within a period of two weeks.