Madar (Dakar) - The finance and budget oversight committee of Senegal's National Assembly on Friday, 30 October 2026, rejected the amended finance bill (LFR) for 2026 for a second time, Dakaractu reported.
At the end of its proceedings, the committee threw out all the texts submitted to its members as well as the two amendments tabled by the government. The vote closed the committee's session on the bill, and what happens to it in plenary remains unclear.
The bill had been sent back to the committee after a first reading. Friday's debate opened with a statement by Budget Minister Bassirou Sarr, and only eight deputies, most of them non-affiliated, signed up to speak, according to the same outlet, which said budgeting was the main sticking point.
The vote followed a 29-page reply sent by the government on 29 October, signed by Economy, Finance and Planning Minister Cheikh Diba, to a memorandum the committee, dominated by the Pastef majority, had sent on 26 October. In it, the executive kept most of its choices while saying it was open to agreement on adjustments.
The government defended in particular keeping 790.3 billion CFA francs for energy, warning that without extra funding the country "risks a fuel shortage and repeated power cuts". It described the deficit of 1,735.2 billion CFA francs (7.6% of GDP) as a ceiling rather than a forecast, and said any delay in adopting the bill would push external support into 2027.
