Polye: Budget rollout to start next month

National, Normal
Source:

The National,Friday23 December 2011

THE 2012 budget book will be opened next month unlike in the past, Treasurer and Finance Minister Don Polye said.
He said there was no time to waste because people deserved goods and services.
It is a tradition that the budget is passed during the November session, the accounts close around the same time, and re-opens around April.
However, Polye told parliament that the budget books would be opened next month as important government policies needed to be addressed, such as the free education policy as schools start in February.
He said basic goods had been subsidised while non-essential and health-risk items such as cigarettes and alcohol would be slapped with increased taxes.
 “This is a people’s budget that is going to make a change and free them from suppression and denial of basic services like education, health and most importantly, the maintenance of existing infrastructure,” he said.
He said successive governments had failed to maintain existing infrastructure and wasted money building new ones year after year.
He said the government was focused on developing and maintaining existing infrastructure like roads and bridges as they were essential to the economy.