KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Opposition Leader Godwin Friday has called Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves to say which program he will cut from the “bloated” 2023.
Parliament has approved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2023 of EC$1.45 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents), paving the way for the Budget presentation on January 9.
Last week, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told lawmakers the package includes Other Receipts of EC$225 million in the capital budget.
In summing up the debate, he accused the opposition leader of reciting “a series of cliches” and focusing on shortfalls of 2014 rather than 2021
Responding to the Estimates, Opposition Leader Godwin Friday told lawmakers that bloating the fiscal package “is deliberate, it’s not a miscalculation or best wishes.”
Friday said that even though the Budget cannot be implemented, it is more extensive yearly.
“This year is bigger than last year. The Estimates are bigger. Bigger, presumably, is better. Even though it cannot be implemented because of a lack of money,” the opposition leader said.
He said there is also the problem of implementation capacity, adding, “but we don’t even have to go there.
“I’m taking them at face value that if you say you have EC$700 million in current expenditure, you have capital expenditure to be implemented, I take you at your word that you can implement the entire amount of the capital expenditure EC$471 million as projected here.”
Friday said opposition lawmakers have spoken repeatedly in Parliament about “the bloated nature of the Budget; the hoax that is attempted to be played on the people of this country.
“And yet, nothing, over the years, has been done. It is brushed aside,” he said, adding that is also what happened when the finance minister presented the numbers on Wednesday.
“The minister was outlining capital receipts. And then he took the time to disaggregate, to break down, some of the loans and grants you get from various countries. And one of the largest items in the capital receipts, EC$255 million, was Other Receipts, and he was silent on it.”
The opposition leader, who also invited Gonsalves to call him out of his assessment wrong, did not indicate where that EC$225 million was coming from.
He said that in light of the shortfall in what is budgeted and what the government reasonably hopes to receive, Gonsalves has three options.
“He could show where the money is coming from,” Friday added, “But as we said earlier, he didn’t know, didn’t present that. You could break it down, give us some confidence that it is.”
The second option, the opposition leader said, is to say which programs or projects will be eliminated or reduced because the government does not have the money to do them.
“Be upfront and honest, and stop promising what you know you can’t deliver. This isn’t very honest. It’s harmful. As it reduces public trust in government and breeds cynicism,” the opposition leader noted.
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