Minster of Public Service Weighs In on Budget Ahead of Debate

Henry Charles Usher

A little over seventeen million dollars have been earmarked for recurrent expenditure in the Ministry of Public Service for the new fiscal year. That is close to four million dollars more than last year’s estimates. On the other hand, the estimated expenditure of capital two investments has more than doubled, from one point four million dollars to three point four million dollars, with the largest portion falling under the category of public service strategic management and administration. When we caught up with Henry Charles Usher, the minister responsible for the public service, we asked him to tell us what Belizeans can expect from his presentation next week. He said we will have to wait and see, but he did give us his general thoughts on the overall budget. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service

“The budget being that was presented by the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance. It is a big budget, one point four billion with no new taxes. In fact, um, taxes are being reduced on, on certain products. Uh, we see that the economy continues to grow at a faster pace than was anticipated. We expect it to slow down a little bit this fiscal year, but we still expect to do better than what is being projected. What is important is that we have a primary surplus, that we continue to have primary surpluses and that we can bring, um, eventually an overall surplus when it comes to our balance sheet. So I think that’s critical. We are working very hard to carry out the initiatives, the plans in our Plan Belize Manifesto, and we’ll continue to do that.”