Pensioners rescue gov’t off fiscal cliff :: Mmegi Online

The Finance ministry this week secured a P3 billion loan from the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF), its first ever direct financing from the pension fund, as it raced to settle outstanding supplier invoices ahead of the start of the new financial year.

Traditionally, the BPOPF participates in government’s domestic debt programme indirectly through the use of intermediaries such as asset managers and their commercial banks. The P55 billion debt programme, which features monthly auctions of government bonds and treasury bills, is open exclusively to primary dealers who are commercial banks.

“Due to persistent fiscal constraints, the government account is more or less overdrawn and revenue offices across the country are experiencing operational incapacitation and as we close the financial year, government faces a significant backlog of outstanding invoices that must be settled,” Minister of Finance Ndaba Gaolathe told Parliament on Monday in seeking approval for the loan.

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