Minister confident of balanced budget at year’s end

DESPITE a forecasted K500 million deficit, Finance Minister James Marape is confident the government can deliver a balanced budget at year’s end.
He proposes to do that by transferring unspent funds from certain development projects.
Marape said several unspent funds such as those parked in the health trust account would be recalled and redirected to priority expenditure areas.
The minister said preliminary reports he had received from the Finance Department indicated that there were many unspent sectoral funds.
“I have requested for a detailed breakdown on unspent expenditure. This will enable us to re-prioritise.”
He said the government would need to tighten up on spending and shift funds to priority areas.