Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg has issued a new update that owed government suppliers can now expect their payment early next month, meaning suppliers and service providers will have to wait a bit longer to receive their payments.
The minister has re-assured that the two loan bills amounting to about E1.75 billion for budget support as well as clearing arrears were on track and expected to be secured early next month.
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The minister had previously projected that the loan funds were to be secured before the end of this month but have since been delayed.
“Unfortunately, the money will not be available by the end of November as expected. It is now anticipated to arrive in early December, but the loans remain on track and both should be released then,” he said.
Rijkenberg also assured that as soon as the funds had been received, government would settle arrears as promised.
Over the past two weeks, government facilitated a total of E230 million worth of payments to suppliers mainly small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Members of the Federation of Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) however raised concerns that they were not all paid, despite assurances from government that all invoices submitted before November 15 would be paid. Parliamentarians recently debated and passed the two loan bills amounting to about E1.75 billion for budget support as well as clearing arrears.
These are the second and third loans sourced for clearing arrears this financial year following the first loan amounting to E1.8 billion sourced from the World Bank in June.
Rijkenberg said the loans had been gazetted and government was hoping to get the money in by the end of this month. “It normally takes about three weeks to get the money in after the gazette has been issued and to get the final loan agreement signed,” he said.
The minister further explained that they were hoping to pay all the owed suppliers and catch up on all the arrears. Rijkenberg recalled that government had been having a stock of arrears ever since he became minister which were about E6 billion at the time.
However, he shared that at present, arrears were fluctuating between E1 billion and E2 billion.
He said when government took the previous loan of about E1.8 billion from the World Bank as the current financial year’s budget needed about E2 billion. He said the plan for the two new Loan Bills was to squash arrears once and for all.
“The idea is if we get these two loans approved, we will pay out the last of the arrears, we believe we can then continue to operate without arrears and not paying suppliers will be a thing of the past,” said the minister.
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