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  by pltm
• Jan 19, 2017
• 0

(PLTM) - The government has moved to slash budget allocations to ministries and departments, as Premier and Finance Minister, Hon. Dr. D. Orlando Smith begins belt-tightening.

According to the Medium Term Fiscal Plan (MTFP) for 2017-2019, under heading, 'Preventing Budget Creep', it was stated that during the 2017 budget process, ministries and departments were required to reduce their budgets by approximately 7 percent, based on revised revenue projections.

"Additionally, ministries and departments were required to identify areas of potential savings, which are used to offset any new spending approved by the Cabinet. Our reformed budget processes, with rolling forward estimates, has helped in containing expenditure budgets," the plan stated.

This year's budget is $323,112,631, with $277,374,631 for operations. The budget is a reduction over 2016, which was $330M.

According to the MTFP, government over the last two years has been able to enact and implement several revenue generating initiatives, including reversal to charging import duties on the cost insurance freight (CIF); increase in import duties on alcohol and tobacco products; and the increase in the hotel accommodation tax from 7 percent to 10 percent.

These initiatives, according to the plan, will buttress revenue receipts in the taxes on international trade and transactions, and taxes on goods and services categories of revenue.

The plan noted that implementation of several other initiatives approved through this MTFP is ongoing, including the marine fee/cruising permits increase, the tourist arrival/environmental levy, and work permit fees.

Conservative estimates for collections based on these initiatives have been included in the projections for revenue collection in the medium term.

"In this way, no significant new revenue measures will be implemented in the medium term. Rather than consistently introducing new taxes and fees, greater emphasis will instead be placed on improving collections systems for existing taxes and fees," it noted.

"Thereby avoiding placing increased burden on the tax-paying public, instead ensuring that outstanding receivables are collected."

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