Hon. Fraser: There is nothing to be optimistic about in Territory’s budget!
In January 2012, Premier and Minister for Finance Hon. Dr. D. Orlando Smith had presented the 2012 Budget Address to the Territory in which operational expenditure was projected at $258,472,000 against revenues projected to be in the vicinity of $287,472,000. Then on March 22 and 23, 2012 House of Assembly (HOA) members were able to debate and make contributions before Appropriation Act, 2012 was passed with amendments.
However, Hon. Fraser is not satisfied “with the way it came out”. In explaining himself, he said the Premier and his Government have decided to lump all the monies in the capital side of the budget which gave Ministers the discretion “as to whether or not they want to move certain projects forward for the year.”
“....that is something totally different than to how my party did it, whereby each project had its own allocation, and district representatives and their constituents would know what the year’s plans were for the district,” he added.
Furthermore, Hon. Fraser has not seen adequate contribution for education in the budget.
“Youth affairs is something I have a keen interest in and I have not seen any improvement in that area over the last few years. As a matter of fact there has been a reduction in the allocation for funds in that area for this year. They try to explain that by saying over the course of the year, they will seek supplementary. I don’t see where the monies are going to come from supplementary. It is customary to have supplementary during the course of the year but things are a little different now than they use to be,” the 3rd District Representative further stated.
Meanwhile, Government plans to allocate $13M to the development fund, $1M to the pension fund and $15M to the reserve fund. The Premier, in his budget address had also stated his Government is hoping to build the reserve fund to $100M by 2015.
According to Premier Smith, Government is presently carrying a debt of $112,329,244 and projection for the 2012 fiscal year is estimated to be $100,663,023. Inflation rate for 2012 is projected to be in the vicinity of two to three percent.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Follow Us On
21 Responses to “Hon. Fraser: There is nothing to be optimistic about in Territory’s budget!”