By Our Staff Writer
The Liberian government has introduced a new fiscal policy on how the president can report on the country’s revenue and expenditure to the legislature.
Finance Minister Samuel Tweah said under the new policy, the president is now mandated to make such report annually from January to December, as enshrined in Article 58 of the constitution over two half fiscal periods. The country’s fiscal year has been running from July 1-June 30.
He explained that “instead of the two half fiscal periods, the national budget will now be implemented under one fiscal period beginning January to December each year.
Min. Tweah was speaking early this week at the launch of the new budget transition policy at the ministerial complex in the Congo Town suburb of Monrovia.
According to him, since the two fiscal periods have different revenue and expenditure patterns, it is important for the President to report on one fiscal year
The new fiscal policy aligns with other ECOWAS countries, especially in the region’s transition to a single currency regime, the new fiscal policy notes.
For his part, Deputy Finance Minister for Economic Management, Augustus Flomo said despite the challenges, the Liberian economy has grown to medium term from 4.1 to 4.9% for 2021-2023 fiscal year.
He blamed fluctuation in the GDP has to unforeseen circumstance ranging from the outbreak of COVID 19 which made it impossible for government to receive needed funds from other partners
Mr. Flomo believes the infusion of foreign exchange could ease some of the challenges the country is faced with, saying that there is an ongoing dialogue on the de-dollarization exercise.