BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Budget Speech date is set to be revealed tomorrow.
This was said by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg when asked if the date for the delivery of the Budget Speech had been set. “The date and time will be announced at the Parliament sitting at 2:30pm tomorrow,” Rijkenberg said.
This follows rumours that are circulating, which are to the effect that the Budget Speech might be delivered next week Friday (February 23, 2024). Rijkenberg did not want to entertain those rumours when asked about them. He only said the date would be revealed tomorrow in Parliament.
The Budget Speech is usually the second biggest activity in the calendar year of Parliament. It follows the State Opening of Parliament, where His Majesty King Mswati III gives directives to the legislators on what needs to be done in a given year. The King gives those directives according to the needs and aspirations of Emaswati.
The Budget Speech, which is delivered by a minister responsible for finance, follows on what the King has said. That is a time when Government presents its plans on how it is going to implement the directives of the King, using the available resources. The Budget Speech is usually delivered towards the end of February or the beginning of March every year.
Last year, Minister Rijkenberg presented a budget of E26.4 billion for the year 2023/2024. The budget highlighted significant increases in study loans, youth empowerment programmes, health, education and infrastructure development, among others. It also included a E30 million budget for the National Dialogue.
Among other things, the Ministry of Finance increased the scholarship budget from E361 million by an additional E286 million to be a total of E647 million. This was done with the hope that number of new scholarships would increase from 2 500 to 3 500 scholarships this year.
