Senate: Emergency Plan Funding Under Scrutiny
By George MBELLA, Cameroon Tribune
The Committee on Finance and Budget ended its two-day substantive study of two bills to amend 2014 and 2015 Finance Laws.
The Committee on Finance and Budget ended its two-day substantive study of two bills to amend 2014 and 2015 Finance Laws.
The
funding mechanism of the FCFA 925 billion Three-Year Growth
Acceleration Emergency Plan set up by the Head of State, Paul Biya,
on December 9, 2014 has come under scrutiny at the Senate as members of
the Committee on Finance and Budget pondered on two bills to amend 2014
and 2015
Finance Laws, respectively, on 1 and 2 April, 2015. Both bills
were defended in-camera by the Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousman Mey.
The first bill was to authorise the
President of the Republic to ratify Ordinance No 2014/2 of December 10
2014 to amend and supplement certain provisions of Law No. 2013/17 of
December 16, 2013 which was the Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon
for the 2014 Fiscal Year. Under this ordinance, the amount of
non-concessional loans that the government was authorised to conclude
during the 2014 fiscal year was raised from FCFA 250 billion to FCFA
600. The concessional loans, for their part, remained unchanged at FCFA
500 billion.
The Committee’s members under their
Chairman, Senator Elie-Victor Essomba Tsoungui, learnt from the Minister
of Finance that the Ordinance was issued to enable the government
mobilize resources from donors to implement the three-year
growth-acceleration Emergency Plan which has an overall budget of FCFA
925 billion and targets seven sectors comprising urban, health,
agriculture and livestock, roads, energy and security of major cities.
A second bill to that effect, equally
scrutinised by Senators, was the bill to authorize the President of the
Republic to ratify Ordinance No 2015/1 of February 6 2015 to amend and
supplement certain provisions of Law No 2014/26 of December 23, 2013
which is the Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the 2015
Financial Year. By virtue of the ordinance, the maximum amount of public
securities, in particular treasury bonds, that the government is
authorized to issue in order to finance development projects is
increased from FCFA 320 billion to FCFA 900 billion.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs chaired
by Senator Doh Ganyonga III also studied the bill to authorise the
President of the Republic to ratify the Protocol on the Preferential
Tariff Scheme (PRETAS) for establishment of the Trade Preferential
System among member countries of the Islamic Conference (TPS-OIC),
adopted in Istanbul, Turkey, during the 21st session of the
Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMEC). The
second was to authorise the President of the Republic to ratify the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention
on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters in 1988, as amended
by the Protocol of 27 May, 2010.
Later on Thursday, April 2, 2015, the
Chairmen’s Conference held to decide of the admissibility of three more
bills shuttled from the National Assembly after the latter’s adoption.
The first bill governs audiovisual activities in Cameroon and the second
bill which amends and supplements some provisions of the December 21,
2010 Law to regulate electronic communications in Cameroon, are both
aimed at providing the national legal framework for the coming of
digital technology.
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