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by pltm
(PLTM) - The drama continues to unfold with the National Democratic Party (NDP) administration, as the 2018 Budget will not be presented to the Territory this morning as scheduled.
This is the first budget since the September natural disasters.
BVI Platinum News understands that the last-minute decision came yesterday from Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. D. Orlando Smith.
The Government blamed the postponement on a planned emergency simulation exercise.
"The public is advised that the Budget Address which was scheduled to be delivered by the Premier, Dr. the Hon. D. Orlando Smith...has been postponed to Monday, 19th March at 10am. This is to allow for the Territory's participation in the annual Earthquake and Tsunami, Caribewave Exercise," a statement from the House of Assembly noted.
Interestingly, the House of Assembly sitting will still continue as planned, in spite of the exercise.
Observers have pointed out this contradiction as a possible excuse to allow for more time to work on the budget.
The House is scheduled to meet at 10:00 a.m.
The House of Assembly office issued the Order Paper for today’s sitting earlier this week, indicating that the Budget Address was the main item for the day.
The postponement of the budget address comes in the middle of ongoing tension within the NDP over the United Kingdom’s fiscal framework for the BVI, which will allow access to the £300M in loan guarantees and £10M in grants being offered by that country.
Hurricanes Irma and Maria left the BVI with over $3.6B in losses, and a projection that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will contract by 40% this year from 2016 levels.
Premier Smith had told reporters last month that the budget is likely to feature several austerity measures.
The 2017 budget was $323M, which represented a reduction in revenue forecast compared to 2016, which was the largest in history at $330M. The recurrent expenditure was in the region of $277M.
