Govt may introduce supplementary budget, says Treasurer

THE Government may introduce a supplementary budget, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey told Parliament on Friday.
He said the supplementary budget was one of the six measures announced by the Government to boost Covid-19 funds.
Ling-Stuckey said since the Covid-19 entered PNG which resulted in the state of emergency and lockdown on March 23, there had been much expectations and speculation on what the Government could do.
“During these very difficult times, the Government announced a very large economic stimulus package, parts had been implemented while others hadn’t been and had created some frustrations.
“This year the economy was already subdued and we just did not need Covid-19 to address the economic problems we faced.
“Nevertheless, this government took on the Covid-19 challenge and we announced an economic stimulus package of K5.7 billion,” he said.
Ling-Stuckey said six measures were announced including an additional K2.5 million which was raised through a Covid-19 bond exercise. He said an additional K600 million was extended in a credit line to support businesses and individuals in coordination with the banks and financial institutions.
Ling-Stuckey explained that there were two interventions, the first was to reduce the kina facility rate from 5 to 3 per cent and the second one was to reduce cash reserve requirement from 10 to 7 per cent.
He added that the key issue was that businesses and individuals had benefitted. Ling-Stuckey said the third measure was to raise K1.5mil in friendly foreign support from the multi-lateral partners, including International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and help from bilateral partners.
He said the fourth measure was K500mil from existing superannuation savings by allowing employees to access additional savings during this economic slowdown.