Budget presentation to the House delayed

During last Wednesday’s consultation in Belize City, Prime Minister Dean Barrow made the announcement that the budget presentation to the House of Representatives would be on February twenty-seventh. But tonight News Five has confirmed that the House meeting has been pushed back to March sixth, just two days after the municipal elections and cutting it close to the financial year which begins April first. According to sources, the delay is because expected funding from the CARICOM Relief fund has yet to come in and it will also allow time for domestic borrowing from the Central Bank. Those monies are a part of G.O.B.’s stimulus plan and will help to plug the holes in the budget. It is known there is a shortfall from oil revenue in the range of thirty-one million way down from a predicted seventy million dollars, and an over expenditure of twenty-seven million which means that G.O.B. is hard pressed to bridge the deficit. It also means that the U.D.P. controlled CITCO and town councils are not about to get the plums in time for the March fourth poll.