EHP passes K63mil budget

The National Main Stories

By ZACHERY PER
Eastern Highlands provincial government passed a K63 million budget for 2019, focused at ‘Growing the Economy’ on Tuesday.
The K62,892,400 budget comprises of functional grants from the National Government of K38,774,200 and internal revenue projected at K24,118,200.
Of the internal revenue, goods and services tax (GST) will raise K16.9 million, and Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd (MVIL) K2 million.
Governor Peter Numu, pictured, said his government would aggressively embark on collecting land rates as per the law while other revenue should earn them K1.4 million.
He said health functional grants of K1,109,100 had been given directly to the provincial health authority (PHA).
“A total of K20,996,800 was rolled over from last year (2018) to this year due to late release of money from Waigani to Goroka,” Numu said.
“At the close of accounts, the rollover figure stands.”
Numu said 10 per cent of internal revenue would be given to churches, one-third to local level governments, and one-third to the economic sector.
The remainder goes to other priorities.
The provincial grants were distributed as:

  • transport infrastructure (K17,676,000);
  • education (K10,971,800);
  • primary production (K2,713, 800);
  • village courts (K657,700); and,
  • land mediation (K77,000).

Numu said the budget was in line with his Provincial Integrated Development Plan 2018-2022 targeting to achieve visions of the National Government’s Vision 2050.
He said the Government would continue to provide K10 million district services improvement programme (DSIP) and provincial services improvement programme (PSIP) to each MPs and himself as governor.
“These funds are not reflected in the budget, but as a province, let’s come together, plan and share resources to build a solid economic foundation for the province.”