Budget 2017

Pruaitch issued a statement after confusion arose from the Opposition about the figures in the Appropriation Bill for 2017.

“These are the figures provided in my budget address, last week and included in Volume 2 and 3 of the budget documents released in Parliament, which uses standardised Government Financial Statistics 1986 data,” Pruaitch said.

The Opposition says the budget bulldozed through by the government using its numerical strength was indeed not a Bill as the figures do not correspond.

The Appropriation Bill reads as over “K21 billion kina signed by the first legislative council” whilst the Treasurer’s speech confirmed the figure to be K12.9 billion.

Opposition Leader, Don Polye who led the Opposition to storm out of the Parliament chamber in protest held a late press conference in which he said there was a major error by the government.