The Parliament of Nauru has passed the country's 2012-13 budget approving the withdrawal of 58 million US dollars from the Treasury Fund.
In his opening budget speech Finance Minister Roland Kun announced that the budget remains in surplus for the current financial year and that government's goals as set out in the National Sustainable Development Strategy, NSDS, remain priorities.
He told Parliament the budget prioritises its expenditures to the highest priority areas consistent with the NSDS, particularly in health and education and infrastructure.
He says the budget will continue to make inroads in reducing the mountains of debt which they have inherited and the budget will consolidate the gains achieved through further economic reforms.
The budget also provides for a number of new spending initiatives and some of those include a New House Scheme that will address overcrowding in many Nauruan homes.
He says at an estimate cost of over 40,000 US dollars for each new house, a total provision of 1.14 million dollars has been provided to support financing of twenty eight new houses.
The scheme will be an interest-free loan repayable to Government over 15 years so to minimize the impact of the applicant's effort to repay the loan.
Following the passing of the Appropriation Bill 2012-13, Roland Kun then tabled the Development Fund Annual Projections 2013 and introduced the Development Fund Report for the First, Second and Third Quarter for 2011-12 of which the statement will be presented at a later sitting of parliament.
