Office of Public Service Management
Grand Turk,
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tel: (649) 946-2801
Web: www.tcgov.tc
GRAND TURK, Turks and Caicos Islands; Tuesday, September 16th, 2009 - The Advisory Council met in Grand Turk on 14 September for the first of two meetings to consider key issues and make their recommendations for 2009/2010 Budget.
The Council was given a series of presentations from the Ministry of Finance budget team with details of current and projected expenditure and revenue and the challenges facing TCI finances for the next six months of this financial year.
The Advisory Council was informed that revenue for this financial year ending 31 March 2010 is expected to be approximately 155 million US dollars: 25% less than last year. It was briefed on the steps the Ministry of Finance had taken to achieve a balanced budget, and was told that further measures would be needed to reduce expenditure to close the remaining gap between expenditure and revenue. These will include additional expenditure cuts but also an increased focus on revenue generation through the collection of unpaid taxes and implementation of new revenue measures. But priority will continue to be given to safeguarding funding for security, health and safety, water and education, minimising the impact on low income households and to ensure that TCI remains a low tax economy.
The Budget team also outlined a number of recommendations for the Council to consider for medium to longer-term steps to be taken to stabilise TCI’s finances. These included systematic changes to the system of administration of public finances in both central government and statutory bodies.
The Council concluded by making recommendations to the Governor on membership of the Airport Authority Board.
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