Opposition says budget ‘illegal’

THE Supplementary Budget passed by Parliament last Friday is illegal because there are defects in the Appropriation Bill, the Opposition says.
Opposition leader Belden Namah said the Supplementary (Appropriation) Bill 2019 passed by Parliament gave effect to the implementation of the 2019 Supplementary Budget but it pointed out serious defects that warranted a review of the budget to fix those defects.
Namah said the Parliament approved a revised revenue of K13 billion, a shortfall of K1.2 billion compared to the 2019 Budget projected revenue of K14.2 billion and a new expenditure of K16.526 billion which represented an increase of K392.6 million compared to the 2019 Budget of K16.1bil.
He said the revenue shortfall and expenditure increases led to a projected deficit of K3.5bil as indicated in the Supplementary Bill.
Namah said therefore, the Supplementary Budget was misleading and did not reflect the common people and he referred to the K392.6 million in the budget “like double dipping”.
He said Budget documents, the explanatory notes to members of parliament on the Bill, stated that the re-appropriation of additional gains in revenue of K392.6 million.
However, Namah said all that was obvious was that the revenue shortfall was revised downwards in the 2019 Supplementary Budget by K1.2bil but where did the K392.6 million additional revenue come from.
He said again, the other misleading statement of the K392.6mil was when it was referred to as grants for additional appropriation.
Namah said if it was a grant and where it was coming from as the Opposition believed the K392.6mil was already included as part of the K3.5bil deficit for debt financing.
Namah said the consolidated revenue trust fund held all tax monies collected by internal revenue and customs and did not hold loan monies.
He said the decision to direct the Treasury secretary to take out K293.6mil from the consolidated revenue trust fund was an illegal direction and therefore criminal in nature.
“The Opposition would also seek legal advice if the matter could be taken to court.”