News / Local
Salaries dominate govt expenditure
22 Oct 2014 at 17:13hrs | Views
Public sector salaries continue to dominate government spending after accounting for more than 70 percent of expenditure in the past eight months.
Official data on government's revenue and spending patterns for the eight months to August this year shows that the government paid out US$1,3 billion on salaries against a target of US$1,296 billion.
The development created a deficit of more than US$20 million.
Although the government raked in US$2,204 billion in the duration under review, employment costs posed challenges on fiscal authorities in balancing revenues and spending.
The data also shows that while the government streamlined its spending at US$2,42 billion against the budgeted US$2,51 billion, the rise in employment costs resulted in limited resources being allocated to capital projects.
The government has slashed economic growth projections for this year to three percent from six percent, citing limited revenue inflows and depressed exports and imports.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa recently introduced new revenue collection measures such as a 10 percent import duty hike on motor vehicles, a five cents increase in excise duty on fuel, a five percent duty increase on airtime for voice and data and a 25 percent duty hike on imported mobile handsets.
The measures are among other factors expected to increase revenue inflows and sustain government spending on employment costs and developmental projects.
Official data on government's revenue and spending patterns for the eight months to August this year shows that the government paid out US$1,3 billion on salaries against a target of US$1,296 billion.
The development created a deficit of more than US$20 million.
Although the government raked in US$2,204 billion in the duration under review, employment costs posed challenges on fiscal authorities in balancing revenues and spending.
The data also shows that while the government streamlined its spending at US$2,42 billion against the budgeted US$2,51 billion, the rise in employment costs resulted in limited resources being allocated to capital projects.
The government has slashed economic growth projections for this year to three percent from six percent, citing limited revenue inflows and depressed exports and imports.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa recently introduced new revenue collection measures such as a 10 percent import duty hike on motor vehicles, a five cents increase in excise duty on fuel, a five percent duty increase on airtime for voice and data and a 25 percent duty hike on imported mobile handsets.
The measures are among other factors expected to increase revenue inflows and sustain government spending on employment costs and developmental projects.
Source - zbc
