Africa-Press – Angola. A delay between the time of receipt of funds resulting from tax collection and the period of payments was at the root of the delay in civil service salaries in the month of May.
That statement was made yesterday, to the press, by the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, at the end of the inauguration of two manufacturing units in Benguela province.
According to the official, in some months there have been these lags and that was what happened in the month of May, conditioning the timely payment of salaries.
“At this point, salaries are regulated and we are going to try, in our government action, to put all our energy into ensuring that situations like this do not happen again”, he stressed.
José de Lima Massano took the opportunity to apologize to all civil servants who were injured due to the delay in wages.
Asked about the gasoline subsidy for some sectors, after the price rose from 160 to 300 kwanzas per litre, he said that the Executive has a set of responsibilities in order to do the best it can to avoid constraints.
Regarding current inflation, he said that despite the Executive paying close attention to the fact, it still has not managed to achieve the objectives with regard to its stabilization.
He referred to some constraints, such as the fact that he is unable to influence the price of a barrel of oil on the international market, which is the main export product, generating 95 percent of the foreign exchange reserves of the Angolan economy.
On the other hand, he also pointed out the fact that oil production has seen some decline recently.
He said, however, that there are opportunities in other sectors of the country with which it is possible to reverse the situation.
“We have to have the purpose of continuing to improve the business environment, he underlined.
Regarding his mission to Benguela, he expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the two factories export their products.
The minister referred to the gypsum-derived products factory, saying that he had received information about the first exploitation of the products manufactured there, which are widely used in civil construction.
“On the one hand, we are increasing national production and, on the other hand, we are reducing imports, creating jobs, more income and thus improving the living conditions of our citizens”, said the minister.
In his opinion, the Executive’s great challenge is to continue to embrace the creation of conditions for units like these to continue to emerge in the country.
José de Lima Massado was accompanied by the ministers of Commerce and Industry, Victor Fernandes, of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Carmem Sacramento Neto, and of Economy and Planning, Mario Caetano João.
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