Modifications On The Finance Law : National Assembly Adopts Ordinance Bill

The bill to ratify the Ordinance of June 2, 2023 which amends and supplements certain provisions of the Finance Law of Cameroon for the 2023 financial year has been adopted at the National Assembly. The adoption followed general debates at the House Chamber which saw the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze providing clarifications to the worries of legislators on the realities contained in the Ordinance. The said Ordinance 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. Finance Minister presented the context that led to the Ordinance, noting that national and international underestimated factors that had a direct impact on the State budget for the current year caused the President of the Republic, Paul Biya to sign an Ordinance which amends and supplements certain provisions on the aforementioned budget. Some of the factors cited by the Minister include increase in the prices of fuel and the subsequent increase in the salaries of State workers as an economic measure to the latter effect, inflationary pressure at the world level and the depreciating dollar exchange rate from FCFA 640 in the initial Finance Law to FCFA 617 in the Ordinance.  The shocks, Minister Louis Paul Motaze noted, met Cameroon in the course of 2023 when the State budget was already adopted, and its modification can only be through an Ordinance, hence the legal document that was brought and later adopted by the lawmakers. Globally, the Ordinance has seen economic growth being revised downward to 3.8 per cent as compared to 4.2 per cent in the initial Finance Law. Tax revenue is inc...