The Constitutional Court of Madagascar has declared the 2026 amended budget law fully compliant with the Constitution, without any reservations. The Head of State can now promulgate the text governing public finances through the end of the year. Deputies adopted the amended budget law on June 22.
Validated. The Constitutional Court (HCC) has ruled. In a decision published yesterday, it declared the 2026 amended budget law constitutional. Now that the constitutional review stage is complete, the Head of State can promulgate the new budget text.
According to the Court of Ambohidahy's decision, the amended budget law is fully constitutional in all respects—from its drafting rationale to the adoption process in the National Assembly, the admissibility of the constitutional review petition, the presence of supporting documents, and compliance with the budgetary balance principle. The HCC notes that "the amount of revenues corresponds to estimated expenditures of 30,731,751,721 thousand ariary."
In its decision, the constitutional court also recalls that the state's objective in the amended budget law's fiscal orientation is to achieve a 3.8% growth rate. A rate that, for the HCC, "reflects a more realistic and cautious approach to the economic situation in the current context."
The amended budget law was adopted by the lower chamber on June 22 following lengthy debate on state initiatives and amendments made during committee work. There was the question of reducing the budget allocated to the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, which ultimately would have been increased. The National Assembly also decided to increase the budget for the Department of Energy and Hydrocarbons "to support Jirama during the dry season," according to its president, Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko.
The issues debated during the June 22 plenary session raise questions about the content of the final version of the amended budget law submitted for constitutional review before promulgation. Contacted sources cannot say exactly which amendments deputies made.
Gray Areas
Currently, gray areas remain. Announcements concerning budgets for the Water and Energy departments, for example, do not appear in the amendments table attached to the committee work report. While a 40 billion ariary increase was announced for the energy sector budget, no formal figure was given for water. The same applies to the Motor Vehicle Tax, known by the acronym TVM.
Implementation of the TVM tax sparked strong protests from taxpayers in early June. Reinstatement of the Motor Vehicle Tax, commonly known as "vignette," was included in the 2026 amended budget bill. In response to citizen protests, the lower chamber president declared that deputies would remove this tax from the amended budget text.
However, TVM removal does not appear in the list of amendments made by deputies during committee work either. The committee work report on the budget text merely states that a question was raised on this subject: "What will we do about TVM application?" The response in the report states: "Given the context, it is better to suspend its application." The subject was not even discussed during the June 22 plenary debates.
Currently, it is likely that answers to the aforementioned gray areas will only come after the budget text is published following promulgation. Furthermore, the budgetary orientations provided in the amended budget law, particularly regarding taxation, have sparked strong opposition from the Free Trade Zones and Partners Association (GEFP).
In a "solemn alert" issued early this month, GEFP calls on the State and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding the growing instability of rules and economic insecurity caused by new taxes and fiscal obligations introduced in budget laws from 2023 through 2026. At first glance, the new fiscal measures in the recently adopted amended budget law were the final straw.
In concluding the debates preceding the June 22 vote on the amended budget law, Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko emphasized that this budget text...