budget

Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey unveiled this positive development during the presentation of the 2024 Budget in Parliament on Tuesday 28th November, 2023.

The K440m allocation is strategically directed towards alleviating the financial strain on parents by introducing school project fee subsidies. Under this initiative, parents will no longer bear up to 20 per cent of school project fees for any of their children attending schools.

For this initial phase of the program, it is the moving of Village Court and Land Mediation officials from DJAG and the administration officers from the Magisterial Services of PNG to Bougainville.

The MoU was signed between the Department of Justice & Attorney General, the Magisterial Services of PNG, the Department of Personnel Management and the Department of Justice and Legal Services of the Autonomous Bougainville Government.  

ABG Minister for Treasury and Finance, Mathias Salas, announced this in parliament this week when he tabled the 2023 ABG Budget speech.

“The major focus of the 2023 ABG Budget is the consolidation of the peace and political process through economic and infrastructure development to prepare and mobilise the people for the conduct of consultations and negotiations for Independence in Bougainville,” Salas said.

The statement revealed that total deficit had risen from K4.6 billion to K7.3 billion and total debt increased to K40, 168 million.

The Treasurer expressed his discomfort with the high deficit levels and the implications that come along with it. In addition to the increased deficit and debt, domestic revenue dropped by K2.5 billion to an outcome of K10, 668 million.

However, the Treasurer described the budget as “The best-managed budget in PNG history.”

The government delivered its annual budget on Tuesday, announcing that the country's foreign aid budget had been cut again.

The Australian National University's Stephen Howes said programmes in places like Pakistan, Nepal, Cambodia and Indonesia have been slashed by as much as half.

But he said the Pacific has been spared.

"The government's caught between these two conflicting objectives. On the one hand, it doesn't want to increase overall aid," he said.

Minister for National Planning and Monitoring, Richard Maru, said within the next two months the remaining balance will also be released to continue the work.

He said this when questioned by Ambunti-Dreikikir MP, Johnson Wapunai.

Wapunai asked Minister Maru on the status of the funding and when the funds might be released so that district hospitals can be upgraded to the prescribed Level Four.

This include airstrips and feeder roads in districts and LLGs.

Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta said the budget yesterday is framed along the theme ‘Restore Governance, Strengthen Institutions and Improve Government Services in Health, Education and Infrastructure’.

Governor Haiveta said one of the main priorities under the budget is to reopen important links costing over K50 million, the highest allocation.

Led by Talasea MP Francis Maneke with his delegation, the district presented a K9.6m budget along with the district’s five-year development plan.

Maneke said his 2018 budget was based around his campaign message, which is to deliver to the more than 200,000 people of Talasea.

He also raised concerns on the electoral boundaries and further called on the Government to look into this issue and split the electorate.

“The Government must really look into this issue and split our electorate.

Governor Philip Undialu released a public statement on Tuesday confirming this, and promised that its first priority will be to assist students.

Governor Undialu said officers from Treasury will travel to Tari this week to load the provincial government accounts before money can be withdrawn to implement its first priority of school fees.

However, the Governor has urged parents to be equally responsible and pay up compulsory fees to ensure their children are registered.

He said the government will only assist given the increased number of students.

Governor Nakikus Konga presented the K256 million budget to Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer, Charles Abel, yesterday in Port Moresby.

From the amount, the provincial government sum stands at K233,344,456 while the local level government’s budget stands at K22,820,800.

The ENB budget is framed against the Provincial Budget Framework Theme ‘Nurturing Sustainable Economic Growth and Development through Infrastructure and SME Development’.