The State budget for the financial year 2020 adopted in revenue at 2, 175 billion 348 million 669, 503 F CFA and in expenditure at 1, 579 billion
22 Dec, 2019
The Members of Parliament and Senators of the Congolese Parliament (Republic of Congo), meeting in plenary, during their budget sessions opened on October 15, 2019, adopted unanimously, with amendment, on Friday 20 December and Sunday 22 December 2019, respectively, the finance bill for the financial year 2020, which has been adopted in revenue at the sum of 2020 2, 175 billion 348 million 669, 503 FCFA and in expenditure at 1, 579 billion 350 million FCFA. This finance bill generates a projected budget surplus of 514 billion 722 million FCFA. It is slightly up on that of 2019, which amounted to 504 billion 165 million FCFA.
State budget revenue come from domestic taxes which are estimated at 715 billion 184 million FCFA. Customs duties and taxes stand at 131 billion 800 million FCFA.
However, donations and legacies and support funds (international institutions) are estimated at 28 billion FCFA. The other expected revenue are around 1, 219 billion 088 million FCFA.
The basic fiscal balance is 721 billion 722 million FCFA, with an overall fiscal balance of 514 billion 722 million FCFA.
The 2020 State Budget complies with the macroeconomic framework established with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). To do this, four rules were enacted, namely: compliance of the budget with the terms of the Programme, as reflected in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies which underpins the Agreement; the alignment, on the objectives of the Programme, of any budgetary policy to be undertaken during the period, so that any modification of the framing is necessarily the result of the agreement between the parties during the Programme and, finally, any external loan to make during the period of the Programme should be on concessional terms.
Due to the still fragile macroeconomic situation, marked by persistent economic and financial deficits, the stance of fiscal policy is that set out in the Medium-Term Budget Framework (CBMT) 2020-2022. This is characterized by the pursuit of a prudent fiscal policy, focused on the reduction of non-oil primary deficit, through the improvement of non-oil revenue, the rationalization of budgetary expenditure and the restoration of the sustainability of the public debt, in order to make it sustainable. In order to achieve these objectives, the Government is counting on the reduction of subsidy in the oil sector. This reduction concerns both the Congolese Refinery (CORAF) and the Congo Electric Power Station (CEC), relying on the efforts to reduce operating costs provided for in the Performance Agreement signed by the State; the reduction of tax expenditure by the withdrawal of exemptions from some companies, following the tax work granted in the Establishment Agreements; and strengthening fiscal transparency, by applying, on the one hand, the gross product rule, which advocates the accounting of all revenue and expenditure, including those levied upstream by oil companies, as part of special agreements and, on the other hand, by the limitation of payments by means of exceptional procedures.
Of course, the 2020 budget is intended to implement the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2022. In this regard, Madame Minister of Planning, Statistics and Regional Integration, Ingrid Olga Ebouka-Babackas, representing her colleague of Finance and Budget, Calixte Nganongo, called on the members of Parliament to go in-depth into the 2020 finance law, to take into account the directive of the Head of State, Denis Sassou-N’Guesso, given on 17 December 2019 to recruit 2, 000 teachers next year.
