“Good, Good Government” says REVENUES to increase by $90M

#TurksandCaicos, October 30, 2021 – The new Progressive National Party administration has proposed to increase the national revenues by US$ 90 million, up from the approved the $274 million.

Making the disclosure in the House of Assembly, on October 26, Finance Minister, the Hon E. Jay Saunders said the real estate and tourism sector are experiencing “mammoth growth” making the increase possible.

“I am also happy to report that there is no longer a need for this good, good Government to draw down on the loan facility to support recurrent expenditures – i.e. costs (for those persons without and accounting background), the Minister who also has portfolio responsibility for Investment and Trade, said.

He added that due to “this strong performance”, the Government is proposing to increase expenditure by three hundred and forty-six thousand, four hundred and forty-three dollars (US$346,443), which is approximately a 1 per cent increase over the current budget.

In addition, the Government is reallocating seven million, seven hundred thousand dollars (US$7.7M) across Ministries to facilitate major Government priorities and process improvements.  “Of this amount, US$3.4 million were savings achieved in personal emoluments for H1 – i.e. the period April -September,” Minister Saunders further said.

The Minister told the House that priority areas will be: land acquisition to support the tourism and education sectors, seed funding to support the implementation of the Credit Union Ordinance, funding to support the partial credit guarantee fund, increased allocation for special needs children and the school voucher programme, funding to continuously monitor the Public/Private Partnership (PPP)system.

He also said additional funding will be provided to allow TCI Government to enter into contracts to advance other priority items, which include citizens security, education, health care, and other social services.

Stressing that the administration has done a lot over these short eight months that it has been in Government, the Minister underscored that there is a lot more work to be done.

“We feel your pain! Your pain is our pain. And I want to assure you that we’re working as fast as we can to fix the problems of today, while positioning the country for a brighter tomorrow. These things we are doing in parallel, and this Supplementary Appropriation Bill is designed to achieve that,” he said.