This Wednesday, the Angolan Parliament approved the General State Budget (OGB) for 2024 in full, with votes for it from the MPLA (in power), considering it a “possible budget”, as well as from the PGA (opposition) and votes against from the UNITA side. (opposition).
The 2024 OGE, which sets costs and estimates global revenues at 24.7 billion kwanzas (27.9 billion euros), was approved by 198 votes from the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA, which is in power) and the Humanist Party. Angola (PHA, opposition), 83 votes against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition) and one abstention from the mixed parliamentary group PRS-FNLA.
The MPLA, in its statement of vote presented by MP Estevez Hilario, justified its vote by saying it was faced with a “possible budget” for the current circumstances.
For a deputy from the party in power, anyone who has a calling to govern “knows that preparing for the OGE is like spending a cold night under a short blanket: if you cover your legs, you expose your head, and if you cover your head, you expose yourself.” Your legs.”
“This is the dilemma of preparing the OGE, we never have an ideal budget, we will always have a possible budget, and this is a possible budget for the current circumstances,” he explained.
Florbela Malaquias, MP and president of the PHA, said at the time that her party voted in favor of the OGE proposal for 2024 based on a “careful analysis of the amendments made to improve the budget.”
However, he noted that Angola’s public debt situation, “which exceeds 50%, is a legitimate concern and it is essential that the government manages the debt responsibly by reviewing and cutting non-essential spending.”
Representative Albertina Ngolo spoke on behalf of UNITA, which presented a number of reasons to justify the no vote, saying the 2024 budget proposal was “riddled with errors made in budget planning and clear inconsistencies between the recommended goals.”
The 2024 OGE is “far from reflecting the real situation in the economy, given that 70% of its economy is informal,” he said.
Deputy Rui Malopa Miguel of the mixed parliamentary group of the Social Renewal Party (PRS) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) justified his abstention by saying that the budget has “little values for the implementation of social, economic and other objectives.” politicians”.
“The mixed parliamentary group has doubts about the implementation of the main economic policies enshrined in the National Development Plan (NDP) to increase the income of families and workers, as well as expand their access, so we voted abstaining,” he said.
The Angolan government forecasts gross domestic product (GDP) growth of up to 2.8% in 2024, reflecting non-oil sector growth of 4.6% and inflation of around 5.3% in the same year. , assuming that oil production, including gas production, should fall by 2.6% in 2024. At least 57.8% of the total budget expenditure for the 2024 economic year, estimated at 14.3 billion kwanzas (16 billion euros), will be allocated to servicing public debt, internal and external, as stated in the budget. The social sector represents the second largest share of the budget with 20.1%, general public services with 9%, defense and public order with 7.1% and the economic sector with 4.9%.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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