NORTHERN Territory Treasurer Dave Tollner has hailed his budget as a "miracle" and called it "the most family-friendly budget that has ever been handed down in the NT, by a country mile".
Tollner's $6 billion second budget, revealed on Tuesday, is characterised by many small cuts rather than drastic measures.
"The government has been red-hot on this issue of trying to drive efficiencies in the public sector," he said.
It has saved $120 million alone by directing department CEOs not to use up unspent budgets before the end of the financial year, Mr Tollner said.
"We've been able to go across all agencies and look in all sorts of nooks and crannies to be able to find little bits here and there, and when you add them up as a whole it becomes an enormous amount of money," he said.
Meanwhile, the budget includes an extended childcare subsidy, a back to school benefit, and more funds for sports and recreation vouchers, while education spending is boosted from $845 million to $871 million.
Health received the biggest slice, $1.35 billion, to include $22.8 million to upgrade the overstretched Royal Darwin Hospital, and $28 million for expanding the mandatory rehabilitation program for problem drinkers.
Revenues are up but the government is reinvesting these and savings in debt reduction, he said, and no jobs or services have been cut other than by natural attrition.
The fiscal balance is running at a deficit of $723 million, which the government says it will slash to $39 million by 2017-18.
The deficit is almost double what was forecast last year owing to the late completion of the $521 million Darwin prison.
The delayed project is also partially behind the rise in net debt to $4.1 billion, up from $3.4 billion in last year's estimate.
Net debt is expected to reach $4.16 billion by 2017-18, which is lower than expected.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Efficiencies drive NT 'miracle' budget
Dengan url
http://tempatistirahatan.blogspot.com/2014/05/efficiencies-drive-nt-miracle-budget.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Efficiencies drive NT 'miracle' budget
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Efficiencies drive NT 'miracle' budget
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar