Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Government says it intends to focus on consolidating its fiscal position to safeguard macro-economic stability during the 2016-2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
This is besides its intentions of creating fiscal space for vital public services and infrastructure development.
Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba says in this regard, government will realign its fiscal trajectory while protecting critical social programmes in the health, education and social sectors.
Mr. Yamba has told Qfm News in a statement that over the medium term, government will also direct resources in its capital budget to complete on-going projects in order to enhance service delivery and create jobs.
He says In addition, government will continue with the improvement of domestic resource mobilization by employing both policy and administrative measures.
Secretary to the Treasury Fredson Yamba
Mr. Yamba has disclosed that in order to achieve this government intends to enhance IT solutions to augment VAT collections and trade taxes; Introduce measures to encourage the use of electronic payments and focus on enhancing capacity and skills in tax auditing, addressing transfer mispricing, base erosion and profit shifting.
He states that government will further stiffen sanctions imposed on tax evaders as well as review legislation pertaining to fees and other levies so as to reflect the cost of providing the related services.
The Secretary to the Treasury adds that government will increasingly use fiscal policy to influence interest rates by particularly limiting domestic borrowing to not more than 1.0 percent of GDP.
He says this is in order to also avoid the crowding out effect of the private sector to access financing.
And Mr. Yamba has disclosed that in the same Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Forecast – over the medium term, total domestic revenues and grants are projected to grow from 17.4 percent of GDP in 2016 to 20.1 percent in 2018 which is an average of 18.8 percent of GDP.
Mr. Yamba says this growth is premised on expected increase in economic activities, tax policy and administrative reforms.
He notes that in terms of revenue mobilization and financing over the medium term, Government will continue to implement measures aimed at strengthening domestic resource mobilization and realize improved public service delivery which is a cornerstone of inclusive broad-based development.