By DOh James Sonkey
The Finance Bill of the Republic of Cameroon for the 2019 Financial Year balanced in revenue and expenditure at FCFA 4,850.5 billion was received from government by Members of Parliament at the National Assembly last November 16, 2018 during a plenary sitting chaired by House Speaker, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril.
After accepting the bill at the Chairmen’s conference 30 minutes before the plenary sitting, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril announced that it will be defended in front of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze and the entire government as from this Monday.
The draft state budget records an increase of FCFA 161 billion in absolute value and 3.4% in relative value compared to the 2018 State Budget which stood at FCFA 4,689.5 billion.
Speaking at a workshop to train MPs on innovations in the procedure to examine and adopt the Finance Bill chaired earlier that day by Senior Vice Speaker at the National Assembly, Hon Hilarion Etong, the Director General of Budget at the Ministry of Finance, Cyrille Edou Alo’o explained that the draft bill prepared in accordance with guidelines issued by the Head of State in a circular last June 20, 2018, expresses the determination to continue to boost strong growth in a global environment marked by a relative rise in oil prices and a national context characterized by the implementation of the Three-year Economic and Financial Programme concluded with the IMF on June 26, 2017 and insecurity in the Far North, North West and South West regions.
In an expose, the Director General of Budget presented to Parliamentarians of the Lower House, characteristics of the new procedure to examine and vote finance laws emphasizing on an adoption procedure that guarantees the financial equilibrium of the finance law and strengthens budgetary specialization per programme and per allocation.
He demonstrated to MPs how government has changed the presentation format of the finance laws from 2017, 2018 to that of 2019. The new format of the finance law of next year has two parts; the first one dedicated to general data on budgetary and financial equilibrium and the second part dedicated to public policy means and special provisions.
The draft budget for 2019 indicates that many new customs, tax and financial measures have been proposed in a bid to step up domestic revenue collection by increasing the tax pressure rate from 13.1% of GDP in 2018 to 13.2% in 2019, reduce public expenditure and keep the debt rate under control.
The 2019 State Budget expenditure shows that the Ministry of Secondary Education has the highest budgetary allocation of FCFA 395 079 billion, the Ministry of Public Works comes second with FCFA 361 344 billion while the Ministry of Defense emerges at the 3rd position with FCFA 247 447 billion.