By Politico Staff Writer
The Sierra Leone Parliament on Tuesday 12th November passed into law “The Finance Act 2020”, paving the way for deliberation on and subsequent enactment of the 2020 Appropriation Bill, otherwise known as budget.
The Finance Act contains provisions that alter and introduces new tax regimes for the Financial Year and it explains how the funds are raised for the projections in the budget. As per constitutional requirement, the passing of the Finance Act must precede the passing of the budget.
Tuesday’s decision by the House came three days after Finance Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa presented the 2020 budget to the lawmakers.
According to Saffa’s presentation, the 2020 Finance Act, among other things, seeks to enhance economic prudence, foster growth and improve best practices relating to the management of public finances.
Hon. Sidie M. Tunis, Leader of Government Business in the House, was quoted in a dispatch from the communications unit of the House saying that the Finance Bill always had issues in the past and that Mr Saffa should be commended for presenting a thorough Bill.
“We have a very, very good Finance Act for 2020 and with this the Bread and Butter Budget will succeed,” Tunis said, referring to the unofficial title of the Appropriation Bill.
Several concerns were however reportedly raised by other MPs, and Mr Tunis assured such lawmakers that their concerns would be addressed.
Opposition leader in the House, Hon. Chernor R.M Bah, said that despite being in opposition, they from the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) believed that all MPs were under obligation to make sure that the Minister of Finance succeeded for the good of the nation.
Hon. Francis Amara Kaisamba of the SLPP, chairman of the Finance Committee in the House, explained the importance of the Bill, noting that a lot of amendments were made in order to match it up with the national budget.
“75% of the expenditure in any budget is generated by the Government, while the balance is funded by donors” he said.
Hon. Daniel Koroma of APC urged the Minister to give due consideration to the taxpayers, citing the need for the introduction of better and newer ways to generate funds for Government to undertake development programmes.
Hon. P.C. Bai Kurr Kanagbaro Sanka III of Tonkolili District appealed for the reduction of taxes on some companies to enable them continue their promotional services in their areas of operations.
“If you tax the poor people to provide money for the rich, you will have economic growth without economic development,” he said during the debate. The Paramount Chief also asked the Minister to focus on job creation through the establishment of industries and viable agricultural interventions to reduce importation.
Another Paramount Chief MP, Hon. Kontanday M’briwa of Kono District, called on the Minister to consider equal distribution of resources at the chiefdom level for actual development initiatives to take place in the rural communities.
Hon. Abdul Kargbo of APC criticized the idea of establishing a procurement directorate in the Ministry of Finance, describing it as counter-productive to the operations of the National Public Procurement Authority.
The directorate of procurement was first established last year and it was severely criticized by the opposition which argued that since all MDAs were supposed to have a unit, it was improper that the Finance Ministry chose to create a directorate.
SLPP MP, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, was concerned about the proposal to transfer the supervisory functions of the two state-owned banks - Rokel Commercial and Sierra Leone Commercial Banks – from the National Commission for Privatization to the Ministry of Finance. Conteh appealed to the Finance Minister to reconsider his decision and give support to the local companies in order to create more jobs, so as to reduce importation and to pay keen attention on auction to maximize huge benefits for the state.
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