Government settles 6 billion birr back payment for contractors

The government settled payments that were not paid for about seven years for contractors who carried out different works in different parts of the country.
Due to lack of adequate finance or budget contractors were claiming payment however they undertook the projects on their schedule.
One of the sectors was the road projects that were carried out by local and overseas companies.
Eyob Tekalign, State Minister of Finance, said that in the past budget year the government settled about six billion birr worth of outstanding payment for contractors, who were engaged on road sector development.
“The outstanding payment certificates that were not paid for 7 years have been paid in the 2019/20 budget year,” he added.
Companies claimed that even though they concluded their duty and requests for payment due to lack of finance they were not paid according to their agreement.
The State Minister said that the 2019/20 fiscal year was concluded in progressive manner and registering good changes in development projects performance and economic growth, meanwhile the global pandemic, COVID 19, occurred.
“The finance sector activity is a good example to show for the promising economic activity or recovery even in the post COVID 19 period,” he says adding “moreover, few years ago cement factories argued that the sector is saturated but we observed now that the supply is unable to meet the demand.”
This week Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that anyone who has foreign currency account can import cement to fill the demand.
“In the ended budget year the government revenue has increased by 30 percent meanwhile the pandemic occurred as of March in the country and the first month of the 2020/21 budget year has surpass the projection,” Eyob explained.
“It is recalled that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been run as per the schedule in the year and other projects have also gone with the target in the year,” he added saying “the Ethiopian economy that have dynamic resilience is going at its strongest level.”
He amplified the success registered on debt GDP ratio. The government also disclosed that the country’s foreign debt has dropped by about five percentages and stood at 26 percent.
According to Eyob, the macroeconomic major challenge is inflation and the government is working tirelessly to improve it.