SACU receipts increase from E5.8 billion to E11.75 billion

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By Avite Mbabazi

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts for Eswatini will increase from E5.8 billion to E11.75 billion in the 2022/23 financial year.

The announcement was made by the minister of finance Neal Rijkenberg today at a press briefing held by the ministry. Rijkenberg revealed that the sum of E11.75 billion that Eswatini is set to receive will be the largest share of SACU receipts that the country has ever received from the regional bloc.

Alongside the budget which will be presented soon, the government is also hoping to table the regulations for a SACU stabilization fund which will help bring more stability to the customary volatility in SACU receipts that the country gets and will pave the road to the country continuing to receive a higher percentage of the SACU revenue pool going forward.

“We are hoping to put about E1.5 billion into the SACU stabilization fund this coming year. This should give us a lot more stability as an economy going forward.” The minister stated during the briefing. As it stands the SACU stabilization fund is yet to be approved by the cabinet and parliament.

Factors that have contributed to the large share of SACU revenues include higher than projected out turn of the 2021/22 Common Revenue Pool (CRP) and the surplus emanating from that will be paid together with the 2023/24 revenue share.

Moreover, there was a reported 25% increase in the projected size of the CRP for 2023/24 compared to 2022/23 and an increase in Eswatini’s share of total intra-SACU imports from 9.6% in the revenue sharing framework for 2022/23 to 10.8% in 2023/24. 

The latter, according to Rijkenberg, means that the measures that the Ministry of Finance has been implementing in order to enhance intra-SACU imports have started paying off.

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