O’Neill: Review figures

IALIBU-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill has advised Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey to re-look at the figures he tabled in the 2020 Supplementary Budget yesterday as most of the cuts were on salaries and wages tax instead of goods and services.
“We have increased salaries and wages of public servants by K90 million,” O’Neill said.
“More than K800 million has been cut on goods and services. I am worried that all our schools and hospitals who receive the bulk of this money will continue to miss out.
“So far the disbursement of what was budgeted for in 2020 to those sectors alone is less than 20 per cent.
“Many schools are now closing throughout the country because they don’t have enough funds to complete the year.”
O’Neill said further cuts to goods and services would “contribute to that even more”.
“That’s the reality that we are living. Instead of making real cuts to expenditure, we are having this goods and services superficially to balance the budget,” he said.
“From the 2020 budget of almost K4 billion deficit, we are now increasing it to K6.6 billion. The argument that is coming because of the drop of GDP of K10 billion is from the estimates of the 2020 budget and is not real.
“The actual drop in GDP is from K84 billion in 2019 to what is now projected at K81 billion.
“So the real drop is about K3 billion. What you are really doing is increasing the borrowing to finance that.”
He said the K6.6 billion deficit would be the highest “in our 45-year history as a country”.
“The question is whether we can afford it. That’s why this budget has to be (reviewed).”