Tax base needs to expand – FNBB
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday February 14, 2022 06:00
Speaking during the First National Bank Botswana's (FNBB) annual Budget Review Seminar on Tuesday, the bank's economist, Gomolemo Basele, stressed the importance of creating a buffer against any volatility in mineral revenues, noting that diversification efforts also need to be ramped up to broaden the local tax base.
'As the country approaches the start of National Development Plan 12, government will have to contend with key issues as part of its efforts to promote fiscal sustainability,' he said.
According to Basele, the non-mining sector is expected to benefit from the increased development spending over the country's forecast fiscal horizon. He said there is need for greater investment as well as policies that try and spur growth in sectors that can ease some of the disruptions. These sectors include agriculture, he said.
'Agriculture has great potential to not only promote food security but to also address the unemployment struggle that we have been faced with for so many years,' he said.
The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security’s director of Agro Business Promotion, Kelebonye Tsheboeng concurred with Basele, stressing that there is an opportunity to invest in all agricultural sub-sector value chains.
'The bulk of the import bill comes from commodities indicating an urgent need for value chain addition through the establishment of processing centres across the country,' she said.
The agricultural ministry is currently reviewing and re-evaluating the agricultural subsidy programmes for relevance and the level of impact. In the agricultural sector, the government has over the years continued to finance various activities and programmes, which have produced mixed results.
It is anticipated that going forward, subsidies and support will be tied to the achievement of output rather than simply subsidising inputs. Greater support will be given to commercially-focussed agriculture.
Tsheboeng said there are deliberate efforts to create an environment for market access such as control of pests and diseases to enable compliance with the export market. She added that government is also engaged in capacity building for local farmers around market access.