Budget Day is September 30

THE 2024/2025 national budget will be presented on Monday, September 30, said a statement on the evening of September 18 from Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

Opposition whip David Lee told Newsday the Opposition had suspected an early budget date.

"We are not surprised by that date. We always felt it would have been September 30 because the country really has no money, and you would have seen some ministries talking about late payment in the month of September.

"The financial year ends on September 30, so Imbert is trying to rush through the budget, because it will take about three weeks from September 30 to pass the budget in both Houses, the Lower House and the Senate."

The budget also faces the House Standing Finance Committee, he added.

"I would not be surprised – we always feel – that at the end of that budget, the prime minister might call an early election."

Lee said the Opposition wants to know the size of the country's deficit for the financial year 2022-2023, and the projected deficit for 2024-2025.

"The revenues are not coming in as projected by the Finance Minister. We wait to see what 'creativity' comes up on September 30.

"It will be an election-year budget. The goodies will come out in that budget. We are sure election goodies will come out."

Asked about such "election goodies," Lee said, "It will be based on promises that will not be kept.

"If you look at the last nine budgets, all the promises Minister Imbert would have made in 2015 to present, none of his promises have materialised."

Last year's budget proposed a total revenue of $54.012 billion and a total expenditure of $59.209 billion, with a deficit of $5.197 billion.

It was predicated on an oil price of US$85 per barrel (WTI) and natural gas price of US$5 per MMBtu (Henry Hub).

The largest chunks went to education and training at $8.022 billion, health at $7.409 billion and national security at $6.912 billion.

The budget raised the minimum wage by $3 to $20.50 per hour and allocated $1 billion in back pay for 37,000 public-sector workers who accepted a four per cent wage increase.

The budget proposed to triple the annual intake of new police recruits from 300 to 1,000 in 2024.

It said the fuel subsidy could reach $1 billion in 2024 but envisaged no hike in prices.

The budget said property tax will be collected in 2024, as has begun. It promised no tax hike for individuals.

The budget also proposed to tackle the foreign-exchange crunch.