Government officials will spend the next few days fine-tuning their latest fiscal plan, the Christie Administration’s fifth budget since assuming office in 2002.
According to one of its architects, much like last yearﾒs, the 2006/2007 spending guide will include “no surprises.”
“It will be pretty much like last year,” State Minister for Finance James Smith said during an interview with the Bahama Journal on Tuesday.
“There will be adjustments in other areas to reflect the governmentﾒs priorities, but we had indicated from the very first year that we had a sort of medium term mission, which would be the prudence in fiscal affairs.
“And so this is really just one phase of that process that we started some time ago. We are trying to contain the fiscal deficit and basically trying to cut the suit according to the cloth available. So there will be no drama.”
The 2005/2006 budget provided for a number of important expenditure commitments and significant revenue measures.
Government officials estimated total recurrent expenditure of $1.2 billion, an increase of $39 million or three percent over the 2004/2005 budget.
Recurrent revenue was projected at $1.14 billion, an increase of $93 million or nine percent over the previous yearﾒs fiscal plan.
Preliminary estimates in a Central Bank report recently noted that the national debt stood at $ 2.7 billion in 2005. That figure was four percent lower than what it was in the third quarter of 2005
In an earlier interview with the Bahama Journal that Minister Smith admitted that he did not expect the national debt to come down significantly – if at all – over the next year.
But he said there is good reason for that, like the continued need for a tremendous amount of government capital expenditure or investments in improving infrastructure, doing a lot of maintenance work and also preparing The Bahamas for other large investments.
Some $40 million has also been poured into certain upgrades at Nassau International Airport and other airports around the country. Enhancements to the road network in New Providence are also necessary, according to officials.
That same Central Bank report further revealed that the governmentﾒs budgetary operations widened to $50.9 million for the second quarter of the 2005/2006 fiscal year from $35.6 million in the same period the year before.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
