Additional Budget 2003/04: We had it coming

This paper addresses Namibia’s revised budget for 2003/04. Known as an Additional Budget, the revised budget is put out after the government collects tax revenues, particularly revenue from diamond mining. This paper focuses on the need of the Namibian government to address two main problems in the current budget process: 1) the inaccuracy of current revenue forecasting 2) the inconsistency in dealing with windfalls. The paper concludes that the reliance on windfalls from diamond revenue to fund expenditures is a risky business. The decrease in revenue from diamond mining in 2003 only serves to highlight the hazards of Namibia’s ad hoc budget process.