Gov’t cuts education allocation by 51%

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The allocation for education sector for year-2020 has been reduced by 51 per cent to $28 million from $58 million in 2019.

This was confirmed by Finance Minister Hon. Harry Kuma in his 2020 budget speech.

“Public service and provincial government allocation will be reduced by 36 per cent to $112.5 million from $175 million, education reduced by 51 per cent to $28 million from $58 million in 2019, and health sector increased by 1 per cent to $31 million from $28 million in 2019. Public Order and safety will be reduced by 63 per cent from $18 million to $7 million,” Mr. Kuma said.

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He said the government is planning to spend $3.941 billion in 2020.

“The total recurrent budget is $3.083 billion, including payroll budget of $1.28 billion or 36 per cent of total SIG Budget. The Other Charges budget will account for $1.80 billion and $627 million is allocated for the development budget including $90 million from the People Republic of China (PRC).

“The government will also ring fence $20 million from the total resource envelope to cover for unforeseen and urgent spending under the Contingency Warrant provision.

“The government is also planning to fund through domestic borrowing $70 million of key infrastructure projects from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Ministry of Communication and Aviation.

“…The 2020 budget demonstrates government strategic commitment to development budget allocation focusing on economic growth of this country. The resources and productive sectors allocation will increase to $105.6 million in 2020, this is an increase of 62 per cent or $40 million from $65.1 million in 2019. Infrastructure will increase by 3 per cent to $88 million from $86 million in 2019, and rural development and other social sector will increase by 208 per cent from $80 million in 2019 to $247 million. “In all 92 per cent of the recurrent and development budget expenditures will be funded by domestic sources and 8 per cent will be funded by development partners.”

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