ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC—The Grenada authorities says it has signed a common warrant offering EC$400 million (One EC greenback = US$0.37 cents) to numerous ministries and departments to be used throughout the first quarter of 2025 as a result of the Homes of Parliament have but to approve an Appropriation Act for the brand new fiscal 12 months.
“Solely Thursday or Friday has handed since I signed off on the overall warrant that offers the ministries and departments the okay to spend for the primary quarter of 2025. The quantity is simply EC$400 million; it takes up a three-month interval for all of the ministries and departments,” Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall mentioned.
Talking on a radio programme right here, Cornwall instructed listeners that there’s provision for recurrent income and ongoing capital tasks.
“Throughout that point, we’ll put together the finances and the finances speech,” mentioned Cornwall, noting that the late presentation of the fiscal package deal finances shouldn’t be resulting from a scarcity of cash for the reason that presentation had been deliberate for the primary quarter of 2025.
Final October, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell mentioned the choice to postpone the finances from its conventional late November or early December interval was resulting from a number of elements, together with the disruption brought on by Hurricane Beryl’s passage on July 1, 2024.
Part 5 of the Public Finance Administration Act describes Grenada’s fiscal 12 months because the interval January 1 to December 31 of every 12 months, whereas part 15 instructs that the finance minister shall undergo the Standing Committee on Finance a minimum of two months earlier than the tip of the fiscal 12 months the Authorities’sgovernment’s annual estimates for the next fiscal 12 months, even when the finances is introduced throughout the fiscal 12 months.
The laws additionally guides the method of legalizing a late presentation of the finances.
“The place the Appropriation Act for a monetary 12 months has not come into operation on the graduation of the monetary 12 months for any motive, the Minister is allowed to gather revenues and approve such expenditure obligatory to a few months from the start of that monetary 12 months or the approaching into operation of the Appropriation Act, whichever is the sooner,” it famous.
The laws additional states that such expenditures shall not exceed one-fourth of the accredited finances of the earlier fiscal 12 months.
