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Gambia presents tax increases in 2007 budget
The Gambia's Minister for Finance and
Economic Affairs, Mousa Bala Gaye, has presented the 2007 budget
estimates before deputies in parliament. The
budget was a total departure from the expectation of poverty-ridden
Gambians who have been yearning for price hikes of basic commodities to
come to an end. The 2007 budget, which will get the approval of the
rubberstamping parliament, purely models a tax-based economy in 2007.
Minister Gaye pegged the total estimated revenue at dalasi
3,342,670,000 (euro 91 million) while total expenditure and net lending
amounted to dalasi 4,408,343,000 (euro 120 million) thus leaving a
deficit of over a billion dalasis (euro 28 million).
According to the Gambian Finance Minister, more than 90 percent of the
total estimated revenue would be derived from taxes, implying that the
Banjul government is set to increase tax on services and goods in the
country.
This equally means prices of goods and services could skyrocket, which
adds salt to poverty, whose ratio currently stands at over 69 percents.
The extension of the government's fiscal basis is one of the main
advices given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to poor nations
as The Gambia. The IMF holds that government need to secure their own
revenue basis - mainly by collecting taxes - to be able to implement
policies that later on could reduce the poverty they first produce.
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