State coffers: the impact of the internal crisis is not alarming

The FBM admits that » the political crisis had negative effects on the internal revenue « , hence came the priority to normalize and to increase the fiscal and customs debt collection. The efforts provided by the administration start to pay off. 

By the end of June 2009, the income realization rate of fiscal and customs taxes revenues rose up to 73% of the initial financial forecasts. The FBM aims at improving this rate until the end of the year. 

« In June 2009, the tax collection reached 103.4 billions Ariary, 4.2% over the monthly finance law forecasts. In accumulated term, the tax revenues raised up to 526.4 billions Ariary by the end of June, or 83.9% of the finance law forecasts « . 

The resumption proves to be more difficult concerning customs revenues. The guilt is the economic downturn following the crisis. Import levels linked either to crude oil based or not based products significantly went down. The customs taxes revenues amounted to 332.5 billions Ariary by the end of June 2009, 61.1% of the initial financial forecasts. 

The prudent management of public finances is reflected by the situation of the state treasury. The balance of the Treasure’s checking account in the central Bank, by the end of March 2009, was 3.5 Ariary billions. By the end of June 2009, the Treasure’s checking account presented an exceeding balance of 103.1 Ariary billions. This improvement can be explained by expense regulations and by the administration’s efforts to improve the internal tax revenues. 

The state’s good financial health permitted to avoid the resort to indebtedness. The hunt for financings by bill auction (TBA) has been stopped for the latest couple of months. The state’s domestic debt level decreased compared to what it was by the beginning of the year 2009. 

The cash position in the central Bank saw a 10 billions of ariary improvement between January 1st and June 30th, 2009. Minister Razafimahaleo admits that austerity certainly permits to preserve the budgetary balance but it considerably reduces the state’s means to achieve its program.