Borges Nhamire, a researcher at the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), said on Tuesday that the package of measures to stimulate the Mozambican economy is incomplete and has no room for monitoring its implementation while being a political manifesto.
For Nhamire, the Government should explain, in detail and clearly, how those measures will be implemented until the citizen understands their direct impact on current expenses.
"This document, in the way it was presented is very meager, because it is not accompanied by an action plan, without which it is not possible to monitor," the researcher began by saying in a televised debate to analyze the Package of Measures for Economic Acceleration (PAE), presented yesterday in Maputo, by the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi.
"What the President read is more of a political manifesto of his view of what should be done to stimulate the economy," he said.
According to the CIP member, it is of paramount importance to know how the tax cuts will make themselves felt in the prices of fuel, food products, and public transportation.
"So this is what an action plan should contain [that explains how and when the objectives will be achieved] with the tax reduction," he clarified, stressing that "the government should present these explanations [even more] because it is a document that is subject to public scrutiny."
While acknowledging that the SAP has some goals in mind, the researcher questions whether resources are available for its implementation, as well as what results are expected in two years of putting the measures into effect. "[If that is not clear] then we are making speculations."
In the same debate, commentator Jobe Fazenda hinted that the two-year deadline for implementing the SAP was "purposeful" because the remaining time horizon for the end of Nyusi's second term does not extend beyond that.
"The President said that these measures was not, a new governance program, but it is included in the Five-Year Government Program, and because it's been two [and a half] years, it only has a two-year time horizon left" he said, assenting that the measures could respond to the challenges of the population. "That is what it would be reasonable to analyze at this time, and naturally we will have to do some work afterwards."
For his part, Hipólito Hamela, Economic Advisor to the Mozambique Chamber of Commerce, also agreed with the idea that the measures adopted have arrived to meet the expectations of the business class.
"We are satisfied because it has responded to a number of requests from the private sector. At least of the 12 we proposed seven are there," Hamela said, acknowledging that there are implementation challenges.
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