FINANCE Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila will table her seventh main budget within the next two weeks.

Well-placed sources believe it will most likely be next Tuesday, March 9, or the week thereafter, on March 16.

Finance Permanent Secretary Calle Schlettwein told The Namibian yesterday that the Minister intends tabling the 2010-11 Budget before Independence Day on March 21. Cabinet has approved this deadline in principle, he said.

The current session of Parliament ends on March 18.

If Minister Kuugongelwa-Amadhila goes ahead with her plan, it means that the 2010-11 Budget will be debated mainly by the incoming National Assembly, which is supposed to be sworn in around Independence Day, during the next session of Parliament in April.

In 2005, during the previous Government change, the budget was delayed until May 12, well after the end of the fiscal financial year.

Economists differ in what to expect from the new Budget.

Old Mutual Namibia Group Economist Robin Sherbourne believes the Minister will follow a conservative approach.

"This year's Budget will be interesting, but we do not expect it to be as expansionary as last year's given the constraints on revenue," he said.

Schlettwein has already confirmed that Government has received only N$5,17 billion from the revenue pool of the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), nearly N$3 billion less than what Minister Kuugongelwa-Amadhila bargained for in her 2009-10 budget speech last March.

Diamond revenue also took a significant knock.

First Capital CEO Martin Mwinga, however, believes this won't deter the Minister's spending plans.

Government has ample room to borrow money, he said.

"We forecast a rise in Government expenditure of more than 20 per cent in the 2010-11 Budget to N$27 billion, as Government begins to fast-track implementation of the National Development Plan III programme, Vision 2030 and the implementation of the 2009 Swapo Party Manifesto," Mwinga said.