Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch

Also the 2017 National Budget handed down by the Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch today was slightly lower than the figures of the 2016 national budget handed down last year.

The country’s money plan for next year stands at K12.9 billion compared to the 2016 figure of K14.2 billion.

“The 2017 Budget is set at K12, 965.4 million against a revenue envelope K11, 088.8 million. This comprise of K9, 182.2 million in tax revenue, K1, 045.3 million in grants and K1, 245.7 million from other sources of revenue,” Pruaitch said.    

That was raised this morning in Parliament by Sinasina-Yonggumgl MP Kerenga Kua.  

“I was hoping that the 2017 Budget will be introduced this week to allow Opposition at least one week to look at the volumes of numbers and justification that goes with it,” Kua said during Question Time.  

He says while previous governments had sought to inflate spending ahead of a national election in order to increase votes, the O’Neill-Dion Government has more respect for the people and will not go down this path.

“The good Treasurer, Patrick Pruaitch, and I, have well over a decade of economic governance experience between us,” PM O’Neill said.

"We have been through the good and the bad times, and I know the Treasurer’s budget in 2016 will be the most thoroughly considered in the history of our nation.

This is revealed in the Government’s ‘Funds Released Report’ as at 30^th June 2016, presented by Treasury Minister, Patrick Pruaitch.

According to the report, K9.797 billion has been expended from the K15.200 billion authorised through government warrants.

This is a 64 percent expenditure of the total warrants authorised by Treasury for this quarter.

The authorised warrants cover operational, debt servicing (operational) and capital investments by the Government of PNG.

This was revealed by District Land Officer Ben Keith to Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch on Monday, during the opening of Sumkar District Tournament in Kinim Station.

Keith says the people of Karkar and Sumgilbar, along the North Coast road, are forced to travel to town and get services because of the officers’ preferred location.

“People of Karkar Island from Waskia and Takia, including Bagbag Island, have to waste money on boat fee down to mainland than another bus fare to town to see those public servants.

“The Treasury office is always closed,” Keith claims.

Minister Pruaitch says the government is focusing on developing youths and one way is to get them involved in sporting activities.

“The government is focusing on building tomorrow’s generation and keeping them fit to take the nation forward,” stresses Pruaitch.

“The government is cutting K10 million each year to districts, which gives a total of K50 million in five years for the districts to use to develop and also allocate funding for such sporting activities.”

Minister Pruaitch made this comment yesterday after the launch of the Asian Development Bank Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) report titled; Finding Balance 2016 Report on Performance of State-owned Enterprises in Pacific Island countries.

“The Government is borrowing so much to fund State-Owned Enterprises, and we need a policy on dividends payment,” he said.

He made this statement on Thursday after Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch tabled the 2016 Supplementary Budget.  

“Coming to Parliament in 2002 under Somare Government, we inherited an economy which was projected to be in surplus by the previous government, (but) we inherited an K800 million deficit and the strategy at that time is to return to surplus as possible,” O’Neill said.  

The budget passed yesterday in Parliament will see cuts across all sectors of the government expenditures to raise much needed revenue to fill the budget vacuum because of drop in forecasted 2016 revenues. 

The 2016 supplementary budget comprises adjustments that include both expenditure saving measures of K928 million and additional revenue raising measures of K958 million.         

Opposition Leader Don Poyle slammed the coalition government for bulldozing the passing of the budget on the same day without giving notice in advance for MPs to research and debate before passage of the budget.

Treasury Minister Patrick Pruaitch, when handing down the budget, said: “The 2016 supplementary budget comprises adjustments that include both expenditure saving measures of K928 million and additional revenue raising measures of K958 million”.