Budget ‘finalised’, says Abel

By HELEN TARAWA - The National

THE 2019 Supplementary Budget will be tabled in Parliament today after it undergoes final adjustments, according to the Government.
It was supposed to be tabled yesterday but postponed to today because it was being finalised, according to Finance and Rural Development Minister Charles Abel, pictured.
Parliament was full yesterday in anticipation for the tabling of the supplementary budget by Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey.
He could not be reached for a comment after Deputy Prime Minister Davis Steven abruptly moved that the sitting be adjourned to this morning.
A Parliament spokesperson said the budget tabling had to be delayed because they had to make some adjustments to the figures.
Former prime minister and Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill who attended Parliament yesterday in anticipation of the supplementary budget debate said the government was “disorganised and a bit lost”.
“There is no government parliamentary business or legislation programme so Parliament is just a question time event,” O’Neill said.
Prime Minister James Marape said the supplementary budget would be about correcting “some of the fallacies and deficiencies of the previous government and to ensure (we) get the fundamental macro-economic numbers corrected”. Marape said the Government was taking a prudent and responsible approach to correct “what is possibly an under performance in the economy” this year.
He said they planned to anchor the budget preparations with more concrete numbers in 2020.
Parliament is expected to rise after the supplementary budget is passed today.
It will return next month for the 2020 budget session.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/budget-finalised-says-abel/

Row over budget

Posted on The National

DEBATE on the 2019 Supplementary Budget has started even before is it tabled by Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey in Parliament, with Opposition MPs calling the figures “misleading”.
Prime Minister James Marape is confident Ling-Stuckey will provide the correct “economic numbers” for the 2019 Supplementary Budget and the 2020 Budget, based on areas the Government team has been working on with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Treasury, the World Bank and others.
“What the Treasurer is doing is to fully ascertain our present economic conditions for us to offer solutions to take our country out of the present (economic) conditions,” Marape said.
“When I was finance minister, I was part of the government that deliberately entered into debt financing so we could do economic projects.
“But along the way, the areas of investments influenced by the then prime minister (Peter O’Neill) differed against some of our opinions.
“And these investments now add up to our present debts.
“Whether it is at K27 billion or above K30 billion, the fact is that it is still very high and possibly above requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.”
Marape said his Government wants to establish where the true economic position of the country was and put forward policies and programmes in 2019 and 2020 “that should take us out of this mess”.
Opposition Leader Belden Namah and Shadow Treasurer Joseph Lelang refuted, saying the figures provided by Ling-Stuckey were “influenced by foreign due diligence group” and therefore unrealistic.
They allege that it “is a dangerous trend and a threat to national sovereignty” if “foreigners” are allowed to influence the 2019 Supplementary Budget and the 2020 National Budget.
Lelang doubted that the Budget, as claimed by Ling-Stuckey, was being assessed and verified by the IMF.
He said the IMF only provided surveillance and based their report on figures provided by the due diligence team.
Lelang cautioned Ling-Stuckey “not to mislead the nation” because the purpose of the IMF’s mission to PNG is to do surveillance of its policy and economy”.
He said the IMF reported a K2.7 billion blow out which was based on the figures provided to them by the Treasurer and his team.
Meanwhile, Marape said one of the reasons he had resigned from the O’Neill-led Cabinet was because his “protests” against budget policies, expenditure priorities were not acknowledged.
“The latest was my protest last November when I had no knowledge of budget frameworks, yet I was forced to support that budget,” he said.
But he said now was not the time to continue the “blame game” but to accept the state of the national economy and work to “rescue” it.
“Our Government will initiate immediate cost cutting on projects and expenditures of no significance to the economy, invest in economic stimulant projects, and source lower cost loans in the immediate to refinance our debts as well as provide budget support,” he said.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/row-over-budget/

O’Neill: Funding cut will hurt districts, provinces

By GYNNIE KERO The National 

FORMER Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, pictured, has condemned the planned slashing of service improvement programme funds for provinces and districts saying it will hurt the people, especially those in rural areas.
O’Neill was responding to a statement by his successor James Marape warning that cuts should be expected in the funding of certain programmes when the Supplementary Budget is tabled in Parliament next month.
Marape mentioned the district service improvement programme (DSIP) and provincial service improvement programme (PSIP).
O’Neill said the DSIP and PSIP were established and maintained by the Government when Marape was finance minister “so that government services could be planned and delivered at the local level, and not simply imposed by Waigani”.
“This is the only funding that goes directly to our districts and provinces,” he said.
“For many years now, through these programmes, the districts and provinces have been able to work with communities to deliver services and projects needed by the people.
“Slashing of these funds will mean services in healthcare, education, community development and security will go into decline.
“Every district and province in our country has planned for the delivery of these promised funds for the remainder of 2019 for the betterment of their people.”
O’Neill said MPs and governors would have to explain to their people why the services had to be slashed by the Government in 2019.
“In over seven years in government, we ensured that DSIPs and PSIPs were paid despite the trying economic times,” he said.
“The Government already has within its means the savings that are required to fund the budget, such as the reforms in government salaries.
“These public service reforms that we initiated in previous years are now coming to fruition and should be fully implemented without fail.”
O’Neill said the Government should manage the budget “without taking drastic measures
that are not properly thought through which could only hurt our people”.


Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/oneill-funding-cut-will-hurt-districts-provinces/

Expect cuts in funding, says PM

By REBECCA KUKU - The National

PRIME Minister James Marape has called for “sacrifice” as Government plans to cut funding to major programmes so it can fund its Supplementary Budget to be tabled in Parliament next month.
He told The National that budgetary allocations to major public-funded programmes such as the Provincial Service Improvement Programme (PSIP) and District Service Improvement Programme (DSIP) would bear the brunt of the cost cut.
“PSIP and DSIP funding will be slashed. All (MPs should be) willing to make that sacrifice to fund the supplementary budget,” he said.
He explained that the Government is in a situation where government revenue has shrunk while expenditure has increased so the Government will be making adjustments to fund a supplementary budget.
“Treasury will be making a review and for the first time the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be part of that review to establish what our revenue is and what our expenditure is as we want to be transparent with our numbers,” Marape said.
“But in any situation where the revenue is smaller than the expenditure, there will be cuts made. So after the review is made, any wastage in public service will be cut.”
The supplementary budget is expected to be tabled in Parliament on Oct 8.
Marape reminded everyone that “we must help ourselves” by tightening up on expenditure.
“No one (else) would help us,” he said.
“We’re giving our new Treasurer (Ian Ling-Stuckey) one more month to look through the numbers and reconcile. So it’s about taking control of our revenue, correcting and tidying the balance for this year.”
The supplementary budget is to readjust the Government’s financial plan as outlined in the 2019 national budget approved by Parliament last November.
Marape had said earlier that the current economic situation warranted a readjustment to the financial roadmap for the year before the 2020 national budget is tabled in November.
Former prime minister and finance minister Sir Mekere Morauta recently joined Marape’s team from the Opposition to assist in addressing the dire economic situation.

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/expect-cuts-in-funding-says-pm/

K2 billion deficit in budget: Basil

By HELEN TARAWA - The National

TREASURER Sam Basil, pictured, says the 2019 budget has a K2 billion deficit due to defaults in collection.
“This year we have run a deficit budget of K2bil. We have budgetary support financing from China Development Bank of K1 billion ($US300 million) and other initiatives through other financers such as Credit Swiss,” Basil said yesterday. He said that from January to the time the Marape-Government took over, the budget support process had not taken place.
“We‘ve taken over the baton and we are pushing for those budget support to come in.
“Also, we’d like to make it known that our collections for this year from our non-tax revenue and dividends, we have come short by K500 million.
“Those are the pressures that have been added on to Treasury and to Internal Revenue Commission and PNG Customs Services – to collect more money to fund the budget.
“We are still pushing for the China Development Bank financing and Credit Swiss.
“We do understand that we are short of K500 million and if we have to take some corrective measures, we will announce them in the next sitting of Parliament. “At this very trying and hard times, we do realise the shortfall of dividends and non-tax revenues that have reported in the Mid-Year Economic Outlook Report, that we are under by K500 million.”
Basil said if there was underreporting of K18 billion, the tax agents’ creditability must be questioned and if they were operating within the code of conduct in filing for their clients. “While commending IRC for its efforts in recovering the monies, we will look at Exiting Act and regulations and penalties of IRC,” he said.
“We want to make it harder for defaulters, especially those tax agents that are committing the same offence cover and over, depriving the state of its revenue that we should be collecting.”

Go to this link for more: https://www.thenational.com.pg/k2bil-deficit-in-budget-basil/