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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Seychelles
Index
The government budget for 1993 foresaw total
expenditures of
SRe1,335.6 million consisting of SRe1,078.7 million in
current
expenditures, SRe232.5 million in capital expenditures,
and
SRe24.4 million in net lending. The proposed spending was
6
percent higher than the 1992 level. Total revenues were
budgeted
at SRe1,186.1 million in 1993, consisting of SRe1,122.6
million
in current revenues and SRe63.5 million in grants. The
projected
deficit for 1993 was SRe149.5 million, compared with a
1992
budget deficit of SRe94.5 million. The 1994 budget
projected a 6
percent decrease in expenditures, leading to a surplus of
SRe64
million rather than a deficit. The 1994 budget also
relaxed
import controls and set forth a five-year development plan
to
increase private sector economic participation, increase
employment and foreign exchange earnings, reduce taxation
and the
inflation rate, and improve social welfare. Interest on
the
public debt consumed more than 18 percent of current
expenditures.
Among other leading components of 1993 current outlays
were
education (10.7 percent), health (7.0 percent),
transportation
and tourism (5.6 percent), and subsidies to parastatals
(4.3
percent). Defense spending was cut by 35 percent between
1992 and
1993--from 7.8 percent to 5.0 percent of the total budget.
The
government's contribution to the SPPF--SRe9.6 million in
1991 and
1992--was eliminated in 1993.
The main revenue sources were a trades tax that
included
taxes on imports (50 percent of total revenues estimated
for
1993) and a business tax based on profits (12.4 percent of
total
revenue). Various fees, charges, dividends and interest,
rents,
and Social Security Fund transfers made up most of the
remaining
budget receipts. The government's program of social
services,
defense spending, and new parastatals had generated
growing
budget deficits that peaked at 20 percent of GDP in the
recession
year of 1986. Austerity in public spending and new taxes
had
resulted in some improvement; by 1992 the deficit was
limited to
4.4 percent of GDP but was expected to rise to 6.5 percent
in
1993. The continued excess of spending over receipts,
combined
with lower foreign assistance levels, remains a worrisome
problem.
Data as of August 1994
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