From the House, By Pesi Fonua

The Tonga government biggest budget of $545.1 million pa’anga for the 2016-2017 financial year was tabled into parliament this morning, 7 June by the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Hon. ‘Aisake Eke.

The 2016-2017 budget is 10% more than the 2015-2016 budget of $496 million.

According to Members of Parliament copies of the national budget for 2016-2017 were made available to them during the past few weeks, but they found there had been a number of changes to the original document, and the latest change was made only very recently.

The one major change was of the total budget expenditure, raised from $541.6m to $545.1m to include funds for the construction of a new Customs Building costing  $3.5 million.

The two government ministries with a lion's-share of the budget, as usual, are the Ministry of Education with $45.5m, and the Ministry of Health with $33.2m.

The Budget Support from foreign donors to this year’s budget is estimated at $217.4m.

Some of the highlights from Hon. ‘Aisake Eke presentation of the national budget to parliament this morning were:

• That he will address the issue of employment in next year’s budget, but this year a substantial amount of more than $6m will be spent on gathering statistics.
• Tonga will build a Tank Farm to secure its supply of imported fuel.
• He reported to the House that government has attracted a Maori company to invest $9 million in Tonga, being $5 million to pay for the debt of the Tonga Forest Product Ltd. to the Tonga Development Bank, and $4 million replant pine trees at ‘Eua.
• That China will spend $10 million to upgrade the golf course for the 2019 Pacific Games.
• Tonga will start importing wheat to make flour to ease its reliance on importing flour.
• Tonga’s reserve will be around $35 million.
• That two out of three civil servants are women, and two out of three civil servants with a university degree are also women.

The budget debate ended this afternoon, but a question by the Speaker of the House, Lord Tu’ivakano remained unanswered and that was: 'What is the $3.5 million Custom House for?'