KINSHASA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo has increased its budget by 46% to $16 billion for 2023, boosted by an expected rise in tax and mining revenues, the president of the senate said.
In September, the government proposed a budget of $14.6 billion, which was later revised upwards. The final budget was adopted late on Thursday.
“The significant increase noted in this budget law is due not only to the government’s efforts to mobilise revenue by its services… but also to a period of improvement in the prices of mining products,” said Senate President Bahati Lukwebo in a speech to lawmakers on Thursday evening.
“These (additional) revenues come from customs and excise, oil revenues, non-tax revenues as well as revenues from the general tax department,” said Boris Mbuku, chairman of the national assembly’s economic and financial committee.
He did not explain which taxes exactly were due to increase.
Congo is Africa’s top producer of copper and the world’s leading miner of cobalt. Its economy is expected to grow 6.3% next year compared to 6.6% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.
(Reporting by Sonia Rolley, additional reporting by Stanis Bujakera; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Tomasz Janowski)
