Ordinance Modifying : Finance Law Finance Minister Justifies Changes

Some underestimated factors on the national and international scene that directly and indirectly affected the State budget of Cameroon for the 2023 financial year caused the Head of State to sign an Ordinance which amends and supplements the aforementioned budget. The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze was thus at the National Assembly on June 29, 2023 to defend the modifications before the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly headed by Hon. Rosette Ayayi. Increase in the prices of fuel as well as the salaries of civil servants as an economic measure to the latter effect, inflationary pressure at the world level and the depreciating dollar exchange rate, are some of the shocks that according to the Minister necessitated the modifications on the State budget. The Ordinance in essence increased the 2023 State budget from the initial FCFA 6,345.1 billion to FCAF 6,726.9, which represents an increase of FCFA 381.8 billion in absolute terms and six per cent in relative terms. The Finance Minister explained that Ordinance would help government to factor in some socio-economic developments that were not initially provided for in the finance law. Such developments, he explained, include, insufficient provisions in the initial finance law to cover marketer’s most earnings from petroleum imports, readjustments of fuel prices on February 1, 2023, a 50 per cent drop in the market value of imported fuel which would induce a reduction in the customs revenue objectives of the initial finance law, drop in oil barrel price proje...