Government tables $773.7 billion budget

The Government is projecting to spend approximately $773.7 billion in the new fiscal year which begins on April 1.

This is $31.8 billion less than the $805.5 billion budgeted for current fiscal year which ends on March 31.

On the recurrent or housekeeping side of the new budget is provision for $560 billion in expenses up from $515 billion last year while the capital budget is slashed from $290 billion to just under $214 billion.

There are sizeable increases for national security, education, justice, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Government’s budget for the new fiscal year despite the $31 billion cut in planned expenditure.

As usual, the lion’s share of the expenditure will be to service the country’s debt with $136.9 billion set aside for interest payments down from $137.6 last year and $152 billion allocated for amortisation, a sharp reduction from the $243 billion allocated last year.

The Estimates of Expenditure was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Audley Shaw this afternoon with the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives to begin its examination of the planned expenditure later this month before the Budget Debate opens in early March when Shaw will say how it will be financed.

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