COVID-19 Era! $$ Spent In Areas With No Rate Of Return
The level of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 continues to take its toll on the British Virgin Islands, making the 2021 budget among the most difficult budgets for financial officials.
Glenroy Forbes, who served as Financial Secretary up to December, 2020, expressed those sentiments to legislators prior to his departure from office and during the Standing Finance Committee Draft estimates for 2021.
“The Financial Secretary (FS) stated that he had been associated with a number of budgets over the years, but crafting the 2021 budget had been one of the most difficult ones he had done so far. He stated that the reason for that resulted from the current COVID-19 era with the level of uncertainty surrounding what was happening and what will happen.”
The report continued: “He expressed that it was difficult to project what revenue will be collected, given the territory had not yet fully recovered from the 2017 hurricanes together with the challenges of COVID-19 made things more difficult. He noted that in the past, quite a bit of expenditure was in capital development as a means to redevelop the territory, but in the COVID-19 era, most expenditure had been spent on matters where there was no rate of return on the expense.”
He further said while the 2021 budget was “tenuously balanced” with the uncertainty, it will be monitored closely during the course of the year.
Furthermore, Forbes said that there would be adjustments as well as re-adjustments which will depend heavily on how the impact of COVID-19 is controlled.
“He said the impact of COVID-19 must be controlled to deal with the economy, and protecting the lives of the people was extremely important. The FS stated that in trying to estimate the collection of revenue will depend on the health and wellness of the people,” the report added.
In November last year, Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon. Andrew Fahie revealed the British Virgin Islands budget for this year was $402,132,046, which was $11,876,565 million less than the 2020 budget of $414,008,611.
“The Financial Secretary (FS) stated that he had been associated with a number of budgets over the years, but crafting the 2021 budget had been one of the most difficult ones he had done so far. He stated that the reason for that resulted from the current COVID-19 era with the level of uncertainty surrounding what was happening and what will happen.”
The report continued: “He expressed that it was difficult to project what revenue will be collected, given the territory had not yet fully recovered from the 2017 hurricanes together with the challenges of COVID-19 made things more difficult. He noted that in the past, quite a bit of expenditure was in capital development as a means to redevelop the territory, but in the COVID-19 era, most expenditure had been spent on matters where there was no rate of return on the expense.”
He further said while the 2021 budget was “tenuously balanced” with the uncertainty, it will be monitored closely during the course of the year.
Furthermore, Forbes said that there would be adjustments as well as re-adjustments which will depend heavily on how the impact of COVID-19 is controlled.
“He said the impact of COVID-19 must be controlled to deal with the economy, and protecting the lives of the people was extremely important. The FS stated that in trying to estimate the collection of revenue will depend on the health and wellness of the people,” the report added.
In November last year, Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon. Andrew Fahie revealed the British Virgin Islands budget for this year was $402,132,046, which was $11,876,565 million less than the 2020 budget of $414,008,611.