BUDGET DAY IS DECEMBER 7

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Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 20, 2016 (SKNIS): Budget Day 2016 in St. Kitts and Nevis is December 7, 2016.

In a national radio and television address, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, made the announcement.

“I am pleased to advise that The 2016 Budget will be presented in Parliament on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.   I look forward to unveiling the plans and programmes, which our Team Unity Administration intends to deliver to the people of St. Kitts and the people of Nevis in the next 12 months in our quest to improve the standard and quality of life of everyone,” Prime Minister Harris, who will lay the Draft Estimates of the 2017 Budget in Parliament for debate and passage, said.

“In our upcoming budget for 2017 we shall outline a number of initiatives to foster the growth and resilience our economy and our beloved people,” he added.

In an interview with Financial Secretary Hilary Hazel at the end of the Budget Estimates Meetings in October, she said that one area that the upcoming Budget will speak to is government’s looking at energy efficiency.

“We are looking at an exciting project in the energy sector. We are partnering with the Caribbean Development Bank to look at an energy efficiency programme for public lighting,” said Mrs. Hazel. “We have the intention to be a greener economy and these are some of the critical steps, small but critical, that we have to invest in to make sure the public comes along in terms of its thinking because there are things that individual homeowners can do.”

Another critical area the financial secretary said that will feature in the Budget is a project to look at the augmentation of the water supply.

“We have the project that we will be looking at exploring the augmentation of water supply with the construction or the drilling of new wells that would continue from this year into 2017,” she said.  “Added to that, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, has also put the cards on the table, in a very formal way, the possibility for funding to be provided for a desalination plant that would help tremendously in sustaining the provision of water in the event that we continue to experience drought conditions.”

This year several communities have had to undergo the rationing of water because of drought conditions. New pipes were laid in Mansion Village to bring relief to the Phillips and Lodge communities providing about 150,000 gallons of water.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, Honourable Ian Patches Liburd has assured that the government is working ardently to resolve the water crisis.

“We have requested proposals for the supply of a drill rig. We intend to drill some seven sample wells out of which it is expected that we’ll find two wells to produce 1 million gallons of water right from here in Ogees so (that) your problems will be solved shortly,” Minister Liburd promised the people in the St. Peter’s area earlier in the year.

In April of this year, the Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) donated EC $620,000 to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to help bring relief to consumers impacted by the ongoing drought-like condition, while the Federal Government provided over EC $600,000 to the Water Department to ensure that the water situation in the areas of Mansion – Phillips – Molineux can be significantly improved.

A government prepares the Budget for fulfilling certain objectives. Some of these objectives include the reallocation of resources, reducing inequalities in income and wealth, economic stability, management of public enterprises and economic growth.

Through the budgetary policy, Government aims to reallocate resources in accordance with the economic (profit maximization) and social (public welfare) priorities of the country.

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