Morobe budget passed

THE Morobe provincial government last Friday handed down a K150 million budget.
Of the K92 million that would come from Government grants, K49 million would go to cover teachers’ salaries and K1.8 million for their leave fares.
By contrast staffing grants for public servants would be K21 million while their leave fares would be K1.3 million.
The rest of the budget – an estimated K58 million – would come from provincial revenue.
The types of revenue are K3 million  royalties from the Hidden Valley gold project, another K30 million from goods and services taxes – of which half would go to the Lae city council, and K14 million from the lease of the old Lae airport land and container storage fees.
Chairman of the provincial finance budget committee and Governor Luther Wenge said the increase in budget was “further indication of the improvement in the National Government cash-flow and the general economic situation of the country”.
The provincial government is also at an excellent position to increase its revenue by effective use of its assets.
And the provincial assembly was informed by Mr Wenge last Friday, that the Government was ready to lease its buildings and develop its land for leasing.
This would also see all new investments for joint ventures, existing joint venture companies to start to return interest back to the government.
About 24 % of the revenue is expected to be raised through this way.
The 2010 Budget has allocated K150 million into two major expenditure areas, governance and administration and service delivery.
Government services include the Tutumang (provincial assembly), Sam Sewe (provincial executive council), office of the governor, local level governments and parliamentary commissioned.
Service delivery which represents 32% of the budget includes infrastructure services and activities related to transport, communication, water and sanitation, electricity and buildings.
The budget is concentrated on transport and schools with no allocation being made for power and water reticulation.