The 2016 Government of Anguilla’s budget, to be delivered in the House of Assembly on December 9, is to be strikingly different from all other previous budgets.
The main reason is that it will take into account the resolution of the banking situation and the affordability, or not affordability, to free NBA and CCB from the conservatorship of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. This is expected to be a determining factor for the approval of the budget – an indication coming out of the Anguilla Government’s press conference on Tuesday, November 24.
Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, addressed media representatives on the budget matter while speaking about the recently-passed Banking Bill 2015 and the now Assets Management Corporation Bill 2015, both relating to the island’s two indigenous banks. “The other aspect of the recovery process is the affordability,” he stated. “The Government of Anguilla/Ministry of Finance met yesterday [Monday, November 23]. We had a meeting with all the senior officials and technicians in the Ministry of Finance when we came up with a draft budget that we believe will fit all the commitments that we have to meet in connection with the resolution of the banking sector. So we are satisfied that we are able to afford the banking sector.
“Of course, the British Government will have a say in this, as well, because they have to give assent to the budget when it is completed. In furthering this, we will be presenting that budget to Executive Council on Thursday morning at nine o’clock. My colleagues here will be present and will have an opportunity to look at the budget, the assumptions involved and what it requires, in terms of legislation, to make it effective and to be implemented.
“When we come out of that meeting, I will ensure that the Leader of the Opposition and the First and Second Nominated Members get a copy of that budget so that they can study it, for the next week and a half, because it is our intention to have the budget address immediately on our return from the UK. We will be returning probably on the 6th and 7th [December] and we will be having the budget address on the afternoon of December 9th – and the debate on the budget on the 10th and 11th.
Mr. Banks continued: “On the 29th and the 30th [December] we will be coming back to do the legislation associated with the budget. We have decided that it is necessary, and it is almost compulsory, that we roll over the Interim Stabilisation Levy for another year. We may make some adjustments to it…as well as the Property Tax legislation…That does not say anything to the methodology because the Property Tax [new rates] will probably come in the middle of next year, but we need to have the legislation in place early. There are a number of other tax measures having to do with companies operating in Anguilla that we are putting in place. It will not be a direct measure that affects Anguillian individuals but some of the people doing business in our country.
“All of that will be wrapped up before the end of the year. It gives the British Government an opportunity to decide whether they will assent to the budget. It also gives them a better grasp of our ability to afford the resolution thrust [for the banks] that is being put in place.”
It is understood that the British Government has certain reservations about the resolution process for the banks – and the cost required to finance what may amount to a planned bail out of the banks by the Anguilla Government using borrowed money. This and other related matters are under active discussion by the various parties involved in the issue.
