Gov’t to hit the road with Budget 2010

Feb 13, 2010 News

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The government intends to take its 2010 Budget on the road, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced yesterday.
Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh, presented the $142.8 billion 2010 Budget on Monday.
Dr Luncheon said that Government Ministers will visit various communities through “Cabinet outreaches” and the administration will also use the media to publicise the budget.
He said that this is being done in the interest of greater accountability and ensuring government gets value for money. In addition, he said it is a way by which government aims to deal effectively with the public.
The Budget was presented under the theme ”Consolidate, Transform, Sustain” and represented a 10.8 percent increase over 2009 and is aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability, strengthening the underlying capacity of the economy and improving the circumstances of citizens.
This year, the overall real growth in gross domestic product is projected at 4.4 percent with the non-sugar economy projected to grow by 3.4 percent.
The budget largely rests on taxes and export earnings and US$30 million the government expects to receive from Norway as part of the five-year forest-saving deal.
That money will go toward infrastructure development, low carbon small business initiatives, the cost of land demarcation and land titling for indigenous communities, and the work of the Office of Climate Change.
The chunk of earnings to support the budget for this year will come from taxes. Revenue is budgeted to increase by 3.2 percent to $98.2 billion, of which the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is projected to collect $94.1 billion.
Customs and Trade taxes are projected to collect $8.3 billion representing an 8.1 percent increase primarily linked to higher import duties given higher levels of imports and improved surveillance by the GRA.
The sum of $21.4 billion has been budgeted for the education sector, with a total of $800 million going toward the national school feeding programme. Some $940 million has been allocated for the expansion of technical and vocational training. These funds will be used in the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of facilities and the procurement of tools and equipment for all technical institutes.
The health sector has been allocated $13.3 billion this year, with $1.4 billion of that going toward the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of health facilities nationwide.
This includes the new impatient facility at the Georgetown Hospital, the rehabilitation of the West Demerara Regional Hospital and the expansion of the Skeldon Hospital.
This year, $2.7 billion is slated to be spent to acquire drugs and medical supplies for the public health care system.
For the housing sector, $2.8 billion is budgeted. Key targets include the allocation of 5, 500 house lots and the processing and distribution of 3, 750 land titles.
Under the second Low Income Settlement programme, $1.5 billion will be spent in 2010 to begin works in six new sites, namely Block 8 Tuschen, Section EE Non Pareil, Ordnance/Fortland, No.76 Village, Give Miles Bartica and Amelia’s Ward in Linden.  Works in these areas will facilitate the development of 1, 504 new house lots.
In the water sector, $2.7 billion will be spent this year on several projects, including the completion of water treatment plants in Lima, Cotton Tree and Vergenoegen as well as the Central Ruimveldt and Sophia iron removal plants.
In the area of youth development, $40.7 million has been allocated to upgrade facilities and purchase training materials and sports equipment, while $392 million has been allocated to upgrade sports infrastructure.
For the security sector, spending of $14.9 billion has been budgeted for the construction, rehabilitation, maintenance and remodelling of facilities. This includes the rehabilitation and extension of the Brickdam lockups, rehabilitation of police stations at locations such as Orealla, Mara and Orinduik.
The funds will also go toward renovations to the Georgetown prisons and to construction a new training school for fire-fighters and policemen.
The sum of $473 million has been allocated for the construction of a forensic laboratory. An estimated $544 million will go toward the purchase and maintenance of vehicles, including the purchase of one water cannon and one mobile police station.
For the justice sector, $1.7 billion has been budgeted, and this will go toward the construction and maintenance of courts across the country as well as other projects.
The Parliamentary debate on the 2010 budget will commence next Monday.

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