By Grace Q. Bryant
The Joint Finance Committee of the Legislature has craved the indulgence of House’s plenary to approve this Fiscal Year 2024 National Budget.
The budget is in the tune of US$743,859,827 or its Liberian dollars equivalent of L$156,954,423,497 at an exchange rate of L$211 to US$1.
Meanwhile, the committee reported to the House’s plenary its findings from the hearings, among other things, stating its recommendation but highlighted that it discovered an additional US51 million in the Revenue totaling the budget to US$743 million.
The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on March 14, 2024, submitted a revised draft national budget for Fiscal Year 2024 of US$692.2 million to the Legislature.
The submission of the revised draft budget complies with Section 17.1 of the Public Financial Management Act 2009.
During yesterday’s April 25, session, the joint committee reported that the House’s Committee on Ways, Means Finance, as per the mandate of plenary, conducted a thorough scrutiny of the Draft Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 beginning with the Revenue Envelope.
The Committee said it conducted hearings with all major revenue-generating agencies including State state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to include, the Liberia Telecommunication Authority, Liberia Maritime Authority, National Port Authority, Liberia Petroleum Refining Company, and other revenue-generating Ministries, Agencies, and Commissions.
The committee said the draft revenue envelope for FY-2024 was submitted at US$692,408,827 hence, after all these consultations, the Committee concluded a revenue envelope of US$743,859,827.
“Honorable Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and distinguished colleagues, considering that there is are comment need to improve and support the collection of colleagues, consignment revenues, the committee wishes to inform you that these revenue collection of government on several factors including measures to be taken by the revenue projections are continent passage of some legislations by the National Legislature,” the committee explained.
The committee stated further that the appropriation stage follows the mandate of the plenary that included the relevant sector committees during the public hearings noting, “In these rigorous budget debates, ministries and agencies were allowed to defend their draft proposals.”
“To enhance revenue mobilization and ensure efficiency in our services sectors, the Committee recommends the passage of the Fiscal Year 2024 National Budget along with its Budget Working Papers, and the Fiscal Measures stated herein, in addition to the Budget Framework Paper,” he maintained.
According to the joint committee chair, upon the approval of the Budget by the President the Ministry of Finance shall present to the Legislature the final copy within fifteen working days, budgetary appropriation for the Liberia Revenue Authority shall be paid immediately boon collection of revenue by the budgetary ratio of 5% revenue collection until its budgetary ceiling is realized by the Act Creating the Liberia Revenue Authority; All social development funds including the land Rental Fees shall be transferred directly to the affected county escrowed accounts and swept at real-time.
“There shall be a revenue sharing of 50% – 50% between the Central Government and the counties (Cities, Township, Borough) for all excess budgetary revenue collected from Real Property Taxes,”
They added, “The Ministry of Labor and Liberia Immigration Services shall retain 5% of revenue generated for the enhancement of digital tracking and service system to cover the cost of enforcement, to ensure efficiency in their services, the Liberia Telecommunication Authority shall remit to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications 5% of its share of revenue as provided for in the Telecommunication Act.”
The Liberia Revenue Authority will ensure the timely collection of all taxes including of SOEs’ contributions, and arrears from road funds monthly, and Maritime remittance payment is consistent with the LISCR Agreement.
Provided that all contributions shall be remitted at most every quarter, the Bureau of State Enterprise shall ensure that the financial reporting of all SOEs is presented fairly, taking into account the expenditure and revenue. The effective monitoring of all SOEs shall be conducted monthly by the BSE at the expense of the SOEs for 0.25% of their gross income per annual.
The Liberia Revenue Authority shall have viewing rights to all internal revenue-generating accounts of revenue-generating entities to include all SOEs.
The Liberia Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Lands and Mines shall coordinate to ensure the efficient collection of mining-related taxes to include a mechanism for withholding at source.
The Liberia Revenue Authority shall conduct a comprehensive reconciliation of all revenue transitory accounts and amounts realized from said reconciliation shall be reported in the supplementary budget during the mid-year review.
The Liberia Revenue Authority shall have viewing rights on all internal revenue-generating accounts of revenue-generating entities including all States Owed Enterprises and reserve the right to garnish for non-compliance in the case of SOEs.
All spending and revenue-generating entities shall submit quarterly reports to the Legislature through a specific procedure and reporting template entries regulated by the Legislative Budget Office (LBO); for providing a comprehensive report on the actual performance of FY-2023 budget, all spending entities shall present a comprehensive expenditure report to the Legislature budget office on and before June 15, 2024.
The Ministry of Public Works, to attain value for money shall submit to the legislature through the Legislative Budget Office (LBO), the individual specifications and road designs with the Bill of Quantities and contracts for road constructions of FY-2023 and FY-2024 proposals before and after implementation and for cost-effective decentralization in the pliability of our roads, at least 25% of the road fund revenue shall be used to procure road maintenance equipment for all counties.
All revenue collected from the Road Fund shall be remitted to the Road Authority by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as collected, while 5% of said fund shall be for the administration of the Road Fund Authority.
