Africa-Press – Angola. The planned investment for the productive sector, in the General State Budget for the 2023 financial year, is around 428 billion kwanzas (856 million dollars), said Monday, in Luanda, the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves De Sousa.
The minister, who was answering the questions raised by the deputies of the 5th Commission of the National Assembly, underlined that among the referred values are 118 billion kwanzas destined to the ministries of the productive sector and 310 billion kwanzas for the National Development Fund.
He explained that the value of the National Development Fund, managed by the Development Bank of Angola – BDA, serves to finance plans aimed at promoting the productive sector, with a focus on grains, livestock and fisheries.
“In the ministries of the productive sector, we have a budget of 118 billion kwanzas, because the Executive understands that the main initiative should come from the private sector to make agriculture, fisheries, industry happen. We want to make resources available to the private sector through the financial institution dedicated to this purpose.
The BDA will lend this money, after analyzing the projects and seeing their viability, and in this way we will help to boost the productive sector”, he reinforced.
The minister says it is necessary to channel more and more resources to the productive sector, to allow the creation of jobs, to bet sustainably on the social sector.
Regarding the payment of the public debt, the minister announced that from February the Ministry of Finance will publish the list of certified companies and those that have signed debt settlement agreements.
“Companies have to be aware that the speed we are going to take to settle these debts, once certified, will depend on the amount of resources we manage to mobilize to honor the present and the past at the same time”.
As for expenses with people and the need to pay civil servants better, the minister says that “we see ourselves in this situation, we try as much as possible to align the expectations of civil servants, but it is certain that we did not succeed, neither in size nor in speed that many of the civil servant classes would like”.
He admitted that it is a continuous exercise, “whose solution also necessarily involves product growth and, with that, greater revenue will come, giving the possibility to increasingly reduce the gap that exists between the various groups”.
As for tax evasion, the official says the sector continues to work to improve existing posts, as well as the creation of new posts, as well as the plan to increase six posts in the 6th tax region (Cunene and Cuando Cubango), eight in the 7th Tributary Region (Lundas and Moxico).
He stressed that, by way of example, to halt the process of tax evasion, a tax office was set up in Cidade da China, which in December obtained 228 million kwanzas in fines, and that these actions should be intensified.
With expenditures and revenues estimated at 20.1 billion kwanzas, the OGE prioritizes the social sector, with a weight of 23.9 percent over the total expenditure of the OGE and estimates a reference price of US$75 per barrel of oil and production average oil production of 1.18 million barrels.
In terms of overall expenditure, social expenditure is the second largest after debt service, with a weight of 23.9 percent and is the largest share of fiscal expenditure, accounting for around 43.5 percent of total fiscal expenditure.
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