The document discusses the economic and social activities carried out by the government of Botswana. It outlines that the government provides free education and training to increase human resources. Literacy classes have also been established to increase literacy and empower society. The government also provides affordable healthcare, access to clean water, housing projects, and maintains peace and security. It gives producers access to capital through agencies like the National Development Bank which lends money at low interest rates. The government also encourages foreign investment and controls important industries through parastatals.

1. Economic and Social Activities
Carried Out by Government
 Remember that the government of Botswana provides social services which
are essential to people’s lives.
 These include human resources which is increased by providing free
education and training.
 Literacy classes have also been established to increase literacy amongst
people and empowerment of the society.
 Cheap health care is provided to all to the peoples' enhance healthy.
 There is an increased access to potable clean water.
 Self- housing projects have been set up to provide accommodation in towns
and villages.
 There is maintenance of peace and security which is provided by the police
and military forces.

2. Cont.
 Producers are given access to capital (money).
 The National Development Bank is meant to help
businessmen and women who want to borrow money.
 This bank lends money at low interest rates to producers
who need new inputs.
 Credit schemes such as the Citizen Entrepreneurial
Development Agency (CEDA) have been put in place to
subsidise certain kinds of production.
 These credit schemes are available for local small scale
producers only.

3. Cont.
 Botswana government encourages foreign investment
to increase productive capacity and employment
creation.
 Social amenities such as water and power
are provided cheaply to encourage such
investments.

4. Cont.
 The government takes control of some productive
activities like parastatals, which it feels are too
important to leave to individual producers.
 These parastatals are establishments that are jointly
owned by the state and an individual or group
of individuals, or between the state and some
private sector of the economy.
 Examples of parastatal establishments in Botswana are
Botswana Telecommunications Corporation, Botswana
Power Corporation (BPC), Botswana Railways and
others.

5. Mobilisation of Resources
 Let us now discuss ways and means through which the
government of Botswana raises money or generates
revenue.
 The money is then used to provide social services and
fund economic activities, among other things.
 The income raised is known as government revenue.
 There are different ways that the government uses to
mobilise resources or to collect income, and these
ways include the following,

6. Taxes
 There are a number of taxes that the government uses to raise the
revenue that it needs. These taxes include:
 Import duty -This is in the form of a percentage (10%) charged on
all goods entering the country from foreign countries.
 Value Added Tax (VAT) -This is a new kind of tax which has been
introduced recently in Botswana.
 It is collected from consumers by all companies and individual
enterprises who make annual profit of P250 000.00 and above.
 The tax is the periodically reimbursed to government by those
businesses.

7. Taxes cont.
 Income tax -Employees pay a certain percentage of
their salary to the government.The amount of money
paid depends on the salary a person earns. This,
therefore, means that people who earn higher salaries
pay more than those who earn less.
 Sales tax -A certain amount of money is added to the
prices of all goods that are sold, and this is sent to the
government.
 Vehicle tax -Vehicle owners pay a certain amount of
money to the department of transport. This is also part
of government revenue.

8. Licensing
 Another way of raising capital or income by the
government is through licensing.
 Different kinds of licences are paid for and after a
certain period of time.
 For example, business, hunting and television
licences.
 The latter does not apply in our country but in other
countries such as South Africa it does apply.

9. Penalties
 Wrong doers are often charged and their money put in
the government revenue.
 Offenders here include careless drivers, those who fail
to pay for licences in time and many others

10. Borrowing money
 The government borrows money from other countries
both locally and overseas.
 The international banks include the African and World
banks.
 This money is then used as part of the government
revenue.

11. Parastatal companies /
establishments
 The government also raises money through state
owned companies such as the railways, electricity and
water supply networks.

12. Partnerships
 The Botswana government also gets a lot of income
from jointly owned companies such as De Beers and
others.

13. Foreign reserves
 The Botswana government keeps part of its money
overseas as foreign reserves which generate a lot of
interest.
 This income is used in times of emergencies such as
famine, drought and other incidents.