Tuesday, July 11, 2023 - 10:45

BUDGET DEBATE TODAY - WHAT WILL GO UP OR DOWN?

The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, who is the Minister for Finance, will present the budget for 2023-2024 to the Gibraltar Parliament this morning. It will signal the start of a State of the Nation debate during which the Government is expected to set out how good things are and the Opposition the mirror opposite.

CALENDAR
The budget is the one set piece occasion of Gibraltar’s political calendar. Every single one of the Rock’s seventeen Members of Parliament is expected to speak. Ministers will reflect on progress over the last financial year and will also highlight their plans and expectations for the current one. The idea is that they account to Parliament for the money that their departments have spent and they outline their spending plans for the current financial year 2023-2024.
SPENDING
On 2 May the Government published an Appropriation Bill, which is the formal mechanism through which those spending plans are approved by the Gibraltar Parliament and become law. In this way the Parliament authorises the expenditure for the year, including the salaries of thousands of public servants and the entire civil service.