All told, the budget contains several tax and levy increases, a new tax and plans for other new ones as well as streamlining of subsidies and subventions. It also wields the dreaded axe of unemployment over a large section of civil servants as well as parastatal employees. While many were expecting a difficult budget, Batswana are naturally shocked and taken aback by the developments.
A frank assessment of the situation, however, demands we acknowledge that the shocks in the budget have long been coming and have been repeatedly articulated by various authorities including the BURS, Bank of Botswana and others. The simple fact of the matter is that government revenues have been shaky since the 2009 and 2015 recessions, with the National Development Plan 11, which began in April 2017, running successive deficits each financial year. Government spending, meanwhile, has failed to be adequately constrained due to public service necessities, the tradition of universal health and education access, resistance within government and the public to cost recovery and increases in the public service wage bill. Wastage and corruption at various levels of the public finance management system have not helped, particularly when culprits appear to behave with impunity. The buck was due to stop somewhere and unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of households struggling in the economic downturn, this has happened in a year blighted by COVID-19.
