‘Public Debt’ is now 3 times higher than what’s left in the ‘Reserves’
The financial precipice, is gleaned from answers provided to the House of Assembly (HoA) recently by Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr the Honourable, D. Orlando Smith (AL) and Policy Analysts from the Ministry of Finance, who briefed the HoA’s, Standing Finance Committee earlier this year.
Reserve Fund
Dr Smith on July 24, 2018, told HoA members, the “balance in the Reserve Fund as of July 18, 2018, is forty four million six hundred and ninety two thousand seven hundred and ninety nine dollars ($44,692,799).”
He was at the time responding to questions posed in the HoA, by Opposition Leader, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), who in a formal query submitted to the House, asked of Dr Smith, “would the Premier and Minister of Finance please tell this Honourable House the balance, as of July 18, 2018, on the Reserved Fund?”
Debt
Dr Smith’s revelation comes in wake of recent pronouncements by senior members of the Finance Ministry who had appeared before the House’s Standing Finance Committee, to examine the draft estimates for that Ministry for 2018.
At the time, Committee members were told that at the end of 2017, “the Central Government total disbursed outstanding debt stood at $122.5 million and this figure includes some $10.74 million drawn on the line of credit.”
This would mean that what’s left in the Reserve Fund, amounts to a third of that outstanding debt.
The Committee at the time was told that the 2018 expectation is that “after paying $14.4 million in principal repayments and disbursing on existing debt $19.8 million, we are expecting and ending this outstanding figure of $125 million on the existing debt.”
Members heard at the time that were government be able to acquire additional debt under the medium-term fiscal plan, the ending balance for 2018 could as be $200 million approximately.
Revenue Woes
On the revenue front, Policy Analyst, Ms Dawn Alexander-Joseph told the Committee that overall for 2018, revenue is expected to be $ 299.5 million including financial services contributions.
This was after 9.3 per cent decline in what the Ministry of Finance had budgeted for in 2017.
Ms Alexander-Joseph disclosed that while $323.1 million was the estimate for 2017, the actual return was $292.9 million, a decline of 9.3 per cent.
The decline was due to the effects of the natural disasters.
She had noted for example, that the revenue for Taxes on International Trade for September to December 2017 was expected to be $15.2 million, this never happened and instead only $2.9 million was realised.
7 Responses to “ ‘Public Debt’ is now 3 times higher than what’s left in the ‘Reserves’ ”
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