Lobamba – The public servants’ wage bill is budgeted to reach E10.48 billion in the financial year 2025/26.
Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, delivered the budget speech today in Parliament and it transpired that just E9.8 billion had been budgeted in the 2024/25 financial year.
In this budget, E500 million has been set aside in anticipation of the outcome of the salary review exercise and any other wage increase related expenditure.
On revenue and grants, the minister remarked, “government revenue excluding grants in the 2025/26 financial year is projected to reach E29.14 billion, which is 30.0 percent of GDP, an increase of 7.6 per cent on 2024/25 financial year. SACU receipts decreased from E13.07 to E10.40 billion, however this budget is utilizing E11.40 billion of which E1 billion is withdrawn from the SACU stabilization fund. Non-SACU revenue is expected to increase by approximately E2 billion and amount to E17.72 billion of which E16.72 billion is from taxes and E1 billion is from non-tax.”
Total grants for the 2025/26 financial year, he said, have increased to E585.27 million, compared to E492,20 million in 2024/25 financial year. This increase was said to be primarily due to the International Development Association (IDA)- World Bank grant of E80 million allocated for clean energy access transformation, E51 million from Japan International Cooperation Agency allocated for the construction of four secondary schools across the four regions and E237 million from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to support various sectors.
Rijkenberg added that total income taxes are projected to increase from E 7.97 billion in the 2024/25 financial year to E9.05 billion in the 2025/26 financial year. This is mainly due to an increase in corporate income tax which grew by 23.6 percent. Similarly, personal income taxes are expected to grow by 10.3 percent to E5.80 billion. Taxes on goods and services excluding SACU receipts are expected to increase by 14.1 per cent from E6.65 billion in 2024/25 to E7.58 billion in the 2025/26 financial year. Value Added Tax increased by 15 percent from E5.09 billion in 2024/25 to E5.85 billion. Fuel tax increased from E1.36 billion in 2024/25 financial year to E1.43 billion in 2025/26, reflecting an increase of 4.5 percent.
“Total expenditure for the financial year 2025/26 is expected to be E32.61 billion. This excludes public debt redemption of E4.44 billion. The appropriated recurrent expenditure is set to be E22.25 billion, an increase of 9.9 percent compared to the 2024/25 financial year. Total budget allocation to capital programmes amounts to E7.25 billion an increase of 14.4 percent from the previous years’ allocation.”
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