The hole in the elections budget will be filled from capital gains tax from the sale of the gas project from Anadarko to Total. President Filipe Nyusi, on the campaign trail in Espungabera, Manica, revealed previous secret details of capital gains taxes and how they are being used.
In a complex deal, the US company Anadarko which developed the part of the Cabo Delgado gas fields closest to the coast, was bought by the US company Occidental, which in turn only wanted the US part of Anadarko. So it sold the African gas and oil part of Anadarko to the French company Total. Vicki Hollob, chair of Occidental, told the press at a ceremony in Chimoio that it had been agreed that Occidental would pay $880 mn in capital gains tax to Mozambique.
Nyusi then told the crowd in Espungabera how the money would be used: $97 mn for elections costs, $355 mn for losses to the cyclones and grants to rebuild, $194 mn to pay off debts to suppliers to the government (caused when the government ran out of money when donors cut off aid after the $2 bn secret debts were revealed) and $234 mn into the state budget.
He went on to explain how the $375 mn of capital gains tax from the sale of part of the further off-shore area by ENI to Exxon Mobil was used: $205 mn to rehabilitate the main north-short road (EN1) in Inhambane and Sofala, $70 mn to repay government debts, and $100 mn for the state budget.
