The Assembly of People's Representatives (ARP) on Tuesday started examining the 2023 Amending Finance Law (7 articles), which provides for an increase in the current year's budget to TND 71.2 billion, due to changes in the local and international economic situation. The government explained that the level of budget expenditure on salaries, management, development expenditures and financial operations had been maintained. The first new article of the Amending Finance Law provides for an increase in State budget revenue to TND 45.3 billion and expenditures to TND 56 billion, thus resulting in a budget deficit of around TND 10.7 billion. Article 2 stipulates the breakdown of State revenues into tax revenues estimated at TND 39.4 billion and non-tax revenues of TND 4.3 billion, while grants are estimated at around TND 1.5 billion. Under the new Article 5 of the draft amendment, the government has set the amount of payments for State budget expenditures at TND 56 billion, to be divided between special missions, missions and programmes, while the amount earmarked for budget commitments is TND 57.7 billion. The government also authorised, under Article 7 of the amending law, the recovery of some TND 25.8 billion from the Treasury. The first nine months of 2023 were shaped by external and internal developments that affected the development of national economic indicators, in particular climate change and drought, in addition to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the rise in commodity prices, in particular energy and grains. In its report on the 2023 Amending Finance Law, the government summarises the changes in 9 key points: To reduce the growth rate from 1.8% to 0.9%, to adjust the assumption for the price of a barrel of oil from $89 to $83, and decrease the country's own resources by one billion dinars. The government forecasts an increase in subsidy spending of around TND 2.1 billion over the initial forecasts, as a result of subsidies on basic products and fuel, the rise in interest on the public debt and the allocation of additional resources to emergency spending. The government also outlines the changes made to the initial 2023 Finance Law, pointing to a 1.9% increase in the budget from TND 69.9 billion to TND 71.2 billion, and an increase in the subsidy to 7.2% of GDP. The government expects debt servicing to rise from 13% of GDP by the end of this year, with a budget deficit at the level of the 2022 budget, i.e. 7.7% of GDP, but 5.2% higher than forecast in the initial Finance Law. Based on the new projections, if Parliament adopts the draft amendments for the 2024 financial year, public debt will stand at 80.2% of GDP, compared with an initial estimated level of 76.7% and 79.9% in 2022.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse