Senegal: Govʼt reduces salaries to tackle struggling economy

In an interview on RTS, Government’s Secretary General Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo discussed several hot-button issues regarding the social and economic situation of the country and the report of the Court of Auditors, to name just a few. A reduction of wages could be envisioned for some of the civil servants.

Ahmadou A Lo assured that the economic situation could be remedied within 24 months, provided all actors adopt a stance of fiscal austerity and discipline. He indicated that, in the context of the Senegal 2050 vision, and particularly the first five-year plan, “reforms will be implemented to drastically reduce the state’s standard of living to its proper proportions”.

To come to this result, the minister stressed that the state needs to review its expenses and subsidies. “We need to sit around a table and talk about it. Everybody benefits from the electricity and fuel subsidy. We will have to make sure that this subsidy benefits exclusively the vulnerable populations”.

Furthermore, Mr. Lo highkighted the need to establish a wage rebase. “Wages will go down somewhere. Those with high wages must make a temporary or permanent effort, the authorities will do so. But what is clear is that we are not going to touch the small salaries,” said the minister.

“It is also necessary that the union demands are returned to proportions that can be understood in such a situation. Asking the government to enforce commitments given in a populist manner by a regime that had an electoral agenda and putting pressure on the government will not work. It will bring about a social crisis. That is on the expenditure side, on the revenue side. And that’s where we think we can do a lot of things”, the Secretary of the government added.

Returning to the payment of taxes that are part of the mobilization of revenues, the secretary general of the government announced reforms in this direction to make Senegalese pay.

All these reforms, announced by Minister Ahmadou Lo, are aimed at reducing the budget deficit and bringing the country’s debt to a reasonable level.

“Within two or three years, we are trying to ensure that these reforms will have full effect so that Senegal’s debt can return to a reasonable level. On the budget deficit, there will be no worries. By 2025, we will be reducing the budget deficit to around 5%.”, said Mr. Lo.



Source :https://www.senenews.com/en/senegal/senegal-the-secretary-of-the-government-announces-several-reforms-including-a-reduction-in-wages