Viewed in that context, this Seminar specifically seeks to achieve the following objectives:-
- To review the macro-economic performance of the current Budget as a point of departure to the 2019 Budget process;
- To involve Members of Parliament in the determination of a National Budget formulation process and its content thereof;
- To engage line Ministries in determining national economic priorities for the ensuing National Budget; and
- To facilitate and enhance Parliament’s consultation with the Ministry of Finance and other line Ministries on how to fund the Budget deficit through Domestic Resource Mobilisation thereby reducing the Fiscal Deficit by cutting down ostensibly domestic borrowing.
From the feedback received from Portfolio Committees, it has emerged that the seminar is pivotal in enhancing Monetary and Fiscal Policy Oversight, particularly the pre-legislative process of analysing the Budget and national finances.
Effective governance systems require policy makers to consult all interested and affected parties in the development of national policies that have a marked footprint on the economy and democratic governance.
Thus, the Pre-Budget Seminar ought to be an innovative and creative mechanism where Parliament must excel in demonstrating its constitutional representative, oversight and legislative roles during the Budget processes. As such, it is fundamental that Parliament and the Executive must reach consensus on the broad Budget framework, in particular, the revenue and expenditure proposals for the 2019 Budget.
This is an imperative in that it will enable Parliament to exercise its constitutional tripartite roles of representation, oversight and legislation.
Although I have implored for consensus between Parliament and the Executive, I have not advocated for naked consensus that compromises constructive criticism unwittingly. Our Committees, through the Chairpersons, should address the big elephant in the room. We need proffered solutions to our burning Budgetary questions.
Besides embarking on Domestic Resource Mobilisation as a way to curtail the Fiscal Deficit, Committees should come up with other practical mechanisms to contain the Budget Deficit. Committees should interrogate ways and means to harness the high employment costs which have been gobling the bulk of our erstwhile annual Budgets.
How about putting up measures to control the ballooning domestic and external debt of $16.9 billion and $5.6 billion respectively?
Furthermore, Committees should stimulate debate on how the Budget can be used as a tool for the industrialisation of our economy in order to create jobs and thereby increase the revenue base.
It is, therefore, axiomatic that as we deliberate during this seminar, we must proffer solutions on how to grow our revenue, how to grow our resource cake.
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