MAPUTO– The Mozambican government has approved regulations to provide for competition in the country’s air transportation sector in order to establish good competitive practices in the civil aviation market.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) here Tuesday, Government Spokesperson and Deputy Education Minister Armindo Ngunga said the regulations would cover any agreement which could have an anti-competitive effect on the market, and would be applicable to all economic services in the sector.
After many years of an effective monopoly on the main domestic routes by Mozambique Airlines (LAM), last year the government liberalised the domestic market and LAM now faces competition from British-based company Fastjet, which is flying on some of the main domestic routes, including daily flights between Maputo and Beira and Nampula. Ethiopian Airlines is also expected to operate on Mozambican domestic routes in the near future.
The Council of Ministers also approved a report on the execution of the 2018 State Budget in the first quarter of the year. This showed that public expenditure between January and March was 54.32 billion meticais (about 905 million US dollars), which is only 17.9 per cent of the total budget for the year of 302.9 billion meticais.
In the same period, the state mobilised revenue of 58.8 billion meticais, which is 18.4 per cent of the annual target of 222.8 billion meticais.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK