Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey on the floor of parliament presented a supplementary budget of K 771mil, pushing expenditure to a record K25, 338 million.
During his presentation on the floor of Parliament today, the Treasurer stated that this was all in the context of ongoing Budget repair and a drive to surplus by 2027 with an option to repay all sovereign debt by 2034.
According to the Ling-Stuckey, the country’s economy is performing better than others in the region, but faced with global uncertainties, he believes this budget will be able to continue the same trend excercised during both the Russo-Ukrainan War and the Covid-19 Pandemic as the government continues to monitor the current Israeli-Hamas conflict in the middle east.
Turning to the local economy, he said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have found that the growth of the Papaua New Guinean economy is set to reach high levels despite allowing for inflation.
“The IMF and the World Bank have predicted that growth this year is expected to be 4.6 in real terms.” “Even after allowing for inflation.”
“This is on top of growth rates of 4.8% in 2021 & 4.6% last year.” “This is the strongest 3 year economic growth since the peak of the PNG LNG period.”
He stated that this Governments approach to protecting the budget and the economy has come through and whilst there are some that doubt the economic figures being presented, believes there is much to be optemistic about in the coming years.
The Treasurer further stated that this economic growth is bringing in revenue for the country and due to this Tax Revenues have performed extremely strong.
“Tax revenues are expected to be K821 million higher than at the time of the budget.”
“Of course some of this is related to strong resources prices but company taxes are up by K646mil, reflecting increased profitability of resource sectors.”
“Income taxes are up by K315mil, reflecting employment growth and higher salaries.” He added that customs revenue is also exprected to grow in coming months.