Estimates debate set for Monday

The House of Assembly is set to take up the 2021/2022 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure next Monday, Attorney General Dale Marshall has announced – after lawmakers get a chance to peruse the document, possibly as early as Tuesday evening.

The Estimates debate commences on Monday of next week (March 15), and the Estimates will be laid electronically…. by this evening,” Marshall told his parliamentary colleagues on Tuesday, ahead of the end of a session of Parliament where supplementary estimates for the current financial year in the amount of $12,490,774 were approved for several ministries.

The Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources has been earmarked to receive an extra $365,000; $1,689,925 has been allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; $609,749 for the Ministry of Health and Wellness; $1,734,237 for the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training; $6,875,756 for the Ministry of Energy Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs is to get $1,216,107, of which $441,273 is to go towards the National Assistance Board (NAB) to allow it to make its National Insurance Scheme contributions for last year.

The budget for the upcoming financial year, which begins on April 1, will include for the first time, a line item on COVID-19 spending.

Minister of Finance Ryan Straughn, who gave a sneak peek into the estimates, told Barbados TODAY on Monday that Government is to spend $109 million to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming financial year.

This, he said, forms part of projected current spending of $3.1 billion and an overall spending budget of $3.3 billion for the 2021/2022 financial year.
(MM)