Budget Boost, $437.6 Million for fiscal year as Supplementary tabled in Parliament

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, September 29, 2023 – The first Supplementary Appropriations Bill for the 2023/24 financial year will add $13.4 million to the National Budget, sweeping the record $424 million allotment to $437.6 million.

The bill was tabled in the House of Assembly by E Jay Sanders, Finance Minister on Tuesday September 26th and the bulk of the cash will go to recurrent expenditure which commands $12.8 million. Capital expenditure came in at just over $700,000.

That extra cash will help with several initiatives stated below:

• $4.2 million dollars will go to community development, including road improvement and more.
• $1.4 million dollars will be spent on a Community Centre in Bottle Creek and 450 thousand on the long-awaited refurbishment of the sports field in South Caicos.
• $1.4million dollars for  consultancies,
• $1 million dollars will be sent to bolster the repatriation budget as the country experiences record migration.
• $1 million goes to Social Programs.
• InterHealth Canada will get another $1.8 million.
• The country’s Climate Resilience Coastal Protection Study will get a $500,000 injection.
• The software being built and consultancy being carried out to get the Turks and Caicos off the EU blacklist will cost $851,000.
• $2 million dollars is earmarked for the cleaning of government agencies.

Laid under the theme, Strengthening Resilience Enhancing Community Welfare through Strategic Investments and Sustainable Development, Saunders said this bill was created with the community in mind.