Government records surplus in total revenue and grants for first quarter of 2023 |03 July 2023
The government has recorded a surplus in total revenue and grants for the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year.
The Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade made the announcement on Friday during a press conference at Liberty House, where it revealed the Fiscal Performance for the year, after presenting the information to the cabinet of ministers last week.
The presentation to the media were by the Comptroller General, Astrid Tamatave and Dick Labonte, the director general for Debt Management Division.
Ms Tamatave said the total revenue and grants collected was R211 million in surplus. During the first quarter of 2022, the amount was R1,856,634 million, while the amount for this year was R2,067,714 million. This represents an 11% increase.
Tax collected was also higher from R1,704,405 million in 2022 to R1,861,106 million in 2023, which is a 9% surplus representing R156,701 million.
Ms Tamatave explained this was mainly because businesses had to lodge their tax returns by March.
With regard to nontax revenue, which is the recurring income earned by the government from sources other than taxes, the performance was lower compared to the same period last year, with a R25,648 million difference. It was R135,858 million for the first quarter of 2022 and R110,210 million for this year’s first quarter, which is minus 19%.
For expenditure and net lending, this is higher by R292.9 million rupees compared to the same period last year, which is a surplus of 16%. It was R1,840,408 million for 2022 and R2,133,260 for this first quarter.
“This is mainly under wages and salaries where we have spent more than the same period last year, and this is mainly due to the 13th month salary,” she explained.
Government also registered an increase of R138.599 million under Goods and Services and its Capital expenditure also went up by 33% with R15.448 million from R46,884 million to R62,332 million for the same period in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
The government’s general performance in terms of its Primary balance, Accrual basis including grants in percent of GDP was similar to the first quarter of 2022, where it remained at 0.5%.
“What we observed is that the ministries’ spending for the beginning of the year is on the same trend mainly because the budget has just open and usually expenses tend to pick up towards the third and fourth quarter,” explained Ms Tamatave.
Government has also made progress in regard to its debt. The Total Debt Stock was 69.0% of the GDP at the end December 2022 and this has reduced to 64% of the GDP during the first quarter of the year. This reflects a reduction of R269 million.
“This is a result of the continued repayment of the country’s debt and also because we had a more favourable exchange rate. At the end of last year Seychelles rupee was trading at R14.12 to a US dollar and this was at R13.68 to a US dollar at the beginning of 2023. This means we have less to pay for our external debt,” explained Mr Labonte.
Total Debt Stock for Domestic was R9,708 million while External debt stood at R1,044 million.
Patsy Canaya
