On Tuesday, June 22, the government unveiled the national budget for the fiscal year 2021/22, and pledged to fuel a Covid-19 recovery through industrialisation and inclusive growth. The plans to stimulate economic recovery from the shocks of the pandemic will benefit from increased public spending, which is set to rise by 9.8 per cent. One of the centrepieces of this budget is that 67 per cent of it will be financed through domestic sources. Foreign grants are projected to constitute 16 per cent of the total budget. In the midst of these hard economic times, this is a critical demonstration of a resilient country and a people determined to wean themselves off foreign aid. There are other various positive aspects we can pick from this budget. It promises to tackle pressing social problems by scaling up social safety programmes to support vulnerable households. More impetus is being added to direct and indirect support to poor households as well as addressing human security issues in districts. By raising safety nets such as VUP, we’re talking about the government having to directly spend the money in communities where ordinary people live. However, a wide range of external and internal threats may undermine these efforts and hurt the fortunes of ordinary citizens. For instance, a volatile global market could hurt our foreign exchange revenues. And no one knows how long this Covid-19 pandemic will last. What we are familiar with though is the trail of consequences it has left behind every time we have let our guards down and allowed it to permeate through society. Previous lockdowns and all sorts of movement restrictions have had terrible consequences on the economy. This is in addition to other social challenges such as aggravating mental health problems and domestic violence. The government has promised to continue monitoring factors that may threaten economic recovery, but it will need to maintain its fiscal discipline. As citizens, we also must play our role in the fight against the spread of Covid-19.
