{"id":123205,"date":"2021-01-28T12:37:10","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T16:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=123205"},"modified":"2021-01-28T12:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T16:57:38","slug":"education-gets-lion-share-of-governments-928-1-million-dollar-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/education-gets-lion-share-of-governments-928-1-million-dollar-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Education gets lion share of government\u2019s 1.4 Billion Dollar Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prime Minister the Hon. Gaston Browne on Thursday announced a $1.4 Billion dollar budget with the Ministry of\u00a0Education, Science and Technology receiving the highest budgetary allocation in the amount of $143.1 million.<\/p>

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Prime Minister Browne in his budget highlighted his government\u2019s commitment to improving all levels and modalities of education in Antigua and Barbuda which he said that is a platform for high levels of economic growth.<\/p>\n

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This budget provides for an overall resource requirement of $1.4\u00a0 billion. This represents a decrease of 18%, or approximately $300 million, when compared to total estimates for 2020.\u00a0 This reduction is not due to the government\u2019s reduction in service delivery, but an adoption of more efficient measures of service delivery.\u00a0 The budgetary and fiscal position points to an overall deficit of 3.4 per cent of GDP\u00a0or $133.7 million, and a primary deficit of 0.8 per cent of GDP or $30.5 million.<\/p>

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The country\u2019s leader announced that his government expects revenue to improve gradually over 2020\u2019s.\u00a0 He said that Recurrent Revenue is estimated at $872.5 million for 2021, which is a 17% increase over the $745.8 million generated in 2020.\u00a0 The components of recurrent revenue are Indirect Tax Revenue – $604.2 million;\u00a0 Direct Tax Revenue – $98.5 million and Non-Tax Revenue – $169.0 million<\/p>

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PM Browne said that the Customs and Excise Division and the Inland Revenue Department are tasked with the all-important responsibility of delivering this revenue performance.\u00a0 The amount budgeted for capital receipts is $7 million, while grant funding for Fiscal Year 2021 is budgeted at $82.1 million.<\/p>\n

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The components of recurrent expenditure are:<\/p>

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