Business Sen. Concerned over Amounts of Supplementary

Business Senator Kevin Herrera pointed out several line items requesting additional funds, raising concerns about the amounts being asked for. He noted that the supplementary budget represents a significant request for new spending. Herrera expressed hope that the P.U.P. administration will continue to maintain fiscal discipline, as it has done in reducing foreign debt. He also criticized the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security, accusing them of simply ‘copying and pasting’ their requests.

 

Kevin Herrera, Business Senator

“The Ministry of National Defense and Border Security [it] seems like they’re copying and pasting previous budgets, and the numbers really didn’t make sense. I highlighted this is my budget presentation last year and this year, in terms of the new personnel, in terms of what was required, in terms of the supplies and – it just didn’t make sense. So it doesn’t come to me as a surprise, Madam President, in looking at these figures, the Ministry of National Security and Border Security is asking for three point three million dollars more or fifteen percent of the nineteen million dollars that was budgeted earlier. It’s a significant ask in terms of new spending, Madam President, and I wanted to highlight that. But also, I think we have to look at in terms of what we were trying to achieve in March. What we had in March, Madam President, is we had a margin of less than one percent of expenditures over revenues, so there was a very small financing gap that was required, and I think that spoke to fiscal discipline. We were trying to really balance those number so now that begs the question: when you throw a hundred and six million dollars on top of that, what does that mean in the larger context? Does that mean that we’ve thrown that fiscal discipline aside and we’re saying let’s expand the deficit? Or does that mean that we’ve brought in unforeseen or unexpected additional revenues into the system, and we’ll maintain those ratios?”

 

More information on the supplementary budget:  https://edition.channel5belize.com/business-senator-weighs-in-on-2024-2025-budget/