The National Budget address will be announced next Wednesday, July 8th in the Fono Ekepule sitting.
Premier Dalton Tagelagi announced this in his first ever Press conference and has confirmed that it will be a deficit budget in response to BCN Queries.
“ Definitely it will be a deficit as we have not been collecting revenue since the beginning of the year so of course going forward it will be a deficit and it also depends on how long this pandemic COVID – 19so at the moment that’s where we are at,” said Tagelagi
The State-Owned Enterprise budgets will now be included in the national budget.
Since 2011, the SOE budgets had not been submitted to the Fono Ekepule.
“ I am glad to say that I’ve just finished meeting with the board as I am the Chairperson and yes it will include it in the main budget next Wednesday so yes it will be tabled,” said Tagelagi
Opposition MP O’love Jacobsen has raised this as an issue since her return to Parliament in 2017.