The cash crisis continues to mark the daily lives of public companies and those in which the Mozambican state has a stake. The Budget Execution Report for the first nine months of 2023, published a few days ago by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, reveals a 92.3% reduction in dividend income when compared to the first three quarters of 2022.
According to the document, which assesses the implementation of the Social and Economic Plan and the respective State Budget for 2023, from January to September this year, the national tax system collected 484.3 million Meticais in dividend revenue, corresponding to 0.2% of the total revenue generated by the state in this period, which was 232,547.4 million Meticais.
The report details that the dividend revenue generated in the first three quarters of 2023 represents a reduction of 92.3% in relation to that collected in the same period of 2022, which stood at 6,304.1 million Meticais, having contributed 1.3% of the total revenue achieved in the same period last year.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance illustrates that the poor performance of this category of revenue was due to the non-payment of five companies, namely Millennium BIM, MCNet, EMOSE, HCB and the National Communications Institute of Mozambique (INCM), which did not pay any revenue to the state. In 2022, for example, HCB paid 3,259.1 million Meticais and Millennium BIM 1,559.7 million Meticais.
In the first three quarters of the year, only four companies paid dividend income, namely MOZAL (274 million Meticais, 67.4% less than in 2022), ENH (200 million Meticais, after having paid nothing last year), CFM (300 thousand Meticais, a reduction of 99.9% compared to 2022) and Mozambique Comunity Network, SA (10 million Meticais, after having paid nothing in 2022).
Dividend income, it should be noted, is a type of income made available to the shareholders of some companies and derives from a company’s profits.
Concession revenues down by 10%
In addition to the drastic reduction in dividend revenue, the Budget Execution Report for the first nine months of the year reveals that revenue from concessions also fell by 10.1%, with 2,493.4 million Meticais collected, compared to 2,772.7 million Meticais collected in the same period of 2022.
HCB (1,404.3 million Meticais), MPDC-Porto de Maputo (591.4 million Meticais) and the Northern Development Corridors (212.3 million Meticais) and Nacala-à-Velha Logistics Corridor (199.0 million Meticais) were the main contributors, while the Nacala Logistics Corridor, INCM and Movitel make up the list of companies that contributed nothing in this revenue category. Overall, concessions contributed 1.1% to the total revenue collected by the state from January to September 2023, compared to 1.3% in the same period in 2022.
De acordo com o documento publicado pelo Ministério da Economia e Finanças, nesta categoria de receitas, o desempenho foi influenciado pelos projectos de exploração de Recursos Minerais, que saíram de 9.771,6 milhões de Meticais, nos primeiros nove meses de 2022, para 3.440,5 milhões de Meticais, em igual período de 2023, o que representa uma redução de 64,8%.
Os projectos de produção de energia cresceram em 45,1% (de 8.630,9 milhões de Meticais para 12.551,8 milhões de Meticais) e os de exploração de petróleo em 36,6% (de 3.729,1 milhões de Meticais para 5.092,9 milhões de Meticais). Em geral, a contribuição deste sector para as receitas do Estado reduziu de 10,7% para 9,4%.
