Africa-Press – Eswatini. Mswati’s Spokesperson Percy Simelane says King’s budget based on available funds. Percy Simelane,the King’s Spokesperson says the Monarch’s budget will be based on available funds amid looming Government financial and/or cash-flow challenges after the country once again, experienced a drastic decline in SACU receipts.
SACU stands for the South African Customs Union(SACU), a regional economic organization that facilitates the free movement of goods between five(5) member States being Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and the Kingdom of eSwatini.
Responding on Friday evening when asked if the King will consider reducing his budget amid the financial challenges, the King’s Spokesperson said, “the Monarch is on record advising Government” to base the country’s budget on available funds.
“We would not be sure how this particular decline in SACU receipts is going to affect budgeting when it hits Eswatini but our experience is that the King once asked that his salary be not increased when the country’s economy was struggling some time back as result of a global economic meltdown.He is also on record advising the government to base its budget only on funds that are available,” said the King’s Spokesperson.
On another note, Neal Rijikernberg, the eSwatini Minister of Finance announced a 20.4% decline in the SACU receipts and this, will or might worsen the tiny Kingdom’s cash-flow challenges.
Eswatini received R10.4billion from SACU and to sustain or fulfil its social obligations, the land-locked Kingdom is highly expected to escalate and strengthen its domestic revenue collection system.
But the country previously faced similar cash-flow challenges due to a number of factors that include fiscal deficits, economic fluctuations as well as the large and/or uncontrolled domestic debt.
Eswatini’s financial dependency on SACU has been a subject of public economic discourse for decades, the country had persistent fiscal deficits with the fiscal deficit averaging 3.3% of the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) in the decade to 2022.
The country is ruled by Mswati as an absolute Monarch and, the King’s lavish lifestyle has been heavily criticized internationally amid escalating levels of poverty and rampant corruption in the public administration.
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