BUJUMBURA, April 21st (ABP) – The members of the lower house of parliament gathered on Friday, April 18, 2025, in a plenary session at the Kigobe hemicycle to analyze and adopt the draft law on the regulation and reporting of the budget for the 2023/2024 fiscal year. The Minister responsible for finance was the guest of the day.
In his presentation of the rationale for that draft law, the minister Nestor Ntahontuye indicated that the resources of the modified state general budget (domestic revenues and donations) increased from 3,238,071,350,855 BIF in the initial finance law to 3,371,684,833,028 BIF in the revised finance law, corresponding to a nominal increase of 133,613,482,173 BIF which stands for 4.12%.
He further explained that that increase is due to the rise in forecasted non-tax revenues, including rents and other non-tax revenues.
Regarding the expenses of the modified general state budget (total expenditures), the minister noted a decrease, with expenses falling from 3,923,194,545,193 BIF in the initial finance law to 3,780,957,869,538 BIF in the revised finance law, representing a nominal decrease of 142,236,675,655 BIF, that is -3.62%.
As for the deficit of the modified general budget for 2023-2024, Mr. Ntahontuye indicated that it stands at 426,519,730,789 BIF, compared to 685,123,194,338 BIF in the initial budget, reflecting a decrease of 40.28%.
Regarding the execution of resources in the modified general state budget, it was also reported that during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, state budget resources amounted to 2,746,336,623,718 BIF, against an annual forecast of 3,371,684,833,028 BIF, representing an execution rate of 81.45%. The total amount of domestic revenues was 1,985,000,936,458 BIF, compared to the forecast of 1,955,887,883,897 BIF, yielding an annual performance of 101.49%.
Non-tax revenues, for their part, were executed at 102.47%, but property income was realized at only 45.20% due to the low level of dividend realization during the 2023-2024 fiscal year compared to the forecast, explained the Minister of Finance.
Regarding the payment of dividends below expectations, Minister Ntahontuye explained that that is partly due to delays in the payment of dividends owed to the public treasury, and partly because some companies are still operating under a fiscal year running from January to December, which means the validation of results does not align with the state’s budgetary fiscal year.
Concerning the exemptions granted, Mr. Ntahontuye mentioned that their total amount stands at 218,317,770,123 BIF.
It was also reported that the external debt at the end of June 2024 is expected to reach 2,017,549,722,957 BIF, while the internal debt will amount to 4,262,092,685,113 BIF.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe, recommended to the Minister responsible for finance the strengthening of capacity in that program, with the aim of ensuring better ownership of the mechanism, in order to produce reliable data in analysis, performance, and budget execution reports.
According to him, the country’s institutions are not yet fully engaged in the implementation of that program-based budget. It is worth to note that that draft law was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly.