Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Minerals and Energy has collected P11.77 billion as at January, says Minister Lefoko Moagi.
Mr Moagi said the collection was 62 per cent of the P19.1 billion revised budget revenue for the 2023/24 financial year.
Presenting his ministry’s budget request to Parliament this week, Mr Moagi said the initial approved revenue budget of P15.8 billion was revised “upward after the mineral market showed some improvement.”
He said for the 2024/25 financial year the projected revenue collection was P18.4 billion, and that it represented a decrease that was expected from mineral royalties.
On the current financial year allocations, he said, the ministry was allocated P428.8 million for recurrent expenditure and that P267. 9 million had been spent.
The ministry was allocated P2 602 billion for the development budget and has since spent P2 545 billion.
Major components of expenditure were government support to Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), cross border electricity supply projects and the expansion of the Francistown petroleum storage depot.
Mr Moagi requested about P2. 727 billion for both the recurrent and development budget.
He said the P339.7 million recurrent budget estimates represented a decrease of P89 million. He attributed the decrease to the approved supplementary funding of the 2023/24 budget amounting to P64.7 as well as the annual subventions to Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) amounting to P53 million.
Mr Moagi also said BERA had been excluded from the 2024/25 budget as the parastaltal would now start financing its operational costs from internally generated revenue.
He said out of the P339. 7 million, the largest share of P278. 6 million was for the ministry headquarters which included estimates for Botswana Geoscience Institute and Mineral Development Company Botswana as well as the Department of Mines and the Department of Energy. As for the development budget, he requested about P2. 388 billion, saying a significant portion of P1.5 billion was proposed for Botswana Power Corporation to cover power importation as well as to enable it to meet its loan repayment obligations.
Other projects include phase two of the north west electricity grid, rural electrification, network extensions as well as network reinforcement projects. He said it also included the construction of oil storage depots at Francistown and Ghanzi.
Providing a synopsis of project progress, he said the Francistown depot which was under construction would provide an additional sixty million litres storage capacity.
He added that the estimated total project cost was P1 billion and was expected to be completed by December 2024.
As for the Ghanzi depot, he said, it entailed the development of a 60 million litre storage facility and was expected to be completed by March 2025 at an estimated cost of more than P700 million. He said the Tshele Hills depot entailed the development of a 187 million litre storage facility through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model anticipated to cost approximately P3.5 billion.
He noted that the project was at tender stage and was expected to be completed by March 2027. On other issues, he said, his ministry continued to electrify new villages and extend networks in already electrified villages to cover the growth of villages.
He said to date 457 out of 565 villages had been electrified, adding that in the current financial year six new villages were being electrified and network extensions were being done in 27 villages.
He added that 20 new villages would be electrified and network extensions would be done in 92 villages in the coming financial year.
Mr Moagi said during the 2022/23 financial year, the standard connection fee was reduced from P5. 000 to P2. 500 for the zero to low income households in order to increase the uptake of electricity.
However, he said, the rate of uptake was still low hence government approved to have free service connections to all households with effect from April 2024. He added that those not on the national grid would access a solar package to facilitate their access to electricity.
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