Treasurer approves budget

TREASURER Ian Ling-Stuckey has approved the New Ireland budget of K271 million.
Ling-Stuckey said the 2020 budget was a significant increase from K146 million in 2018 and includes K160 million of national government funding
He said in addition, GST (goods and services tax) payments to New Ireland’s internal revenue had nearly quadrupled from K3 million in 2018 to an estimated K11.7 million in 2020.
“New Ireland is blessed with resources. Unlike many other smaller provinces, we are blessed with the resources from our mines, especially Lihir,” he said.
Indeed, mining revenues have increased from K35 million in 2018 to an estimated K45 million in 2020.
The mines also support the province in other practical ways such as the work that is being through the WFA buying point which buys crops from local farmers and sells them to the National Catering Services (NCS) which provides catering for the Lihir gold mine.
Ling-Stuckey encouraged the provincial government to be inclusive in the distribution of funding across the province.
“It was important to ensure that people were not denied their basic services but receive their fair share including from mining royalty funding,” he said. “I urge the provincial government to work closely with the Department of Planning and Monitoring.
“There is considerable scope to strengthen positive partnerships in this area including support for vision 2050.”
Ling-Stuckey said cooperation with the Planning and Monitoring Department could only increase New Ireland’s share of the national Public Investment Programme.