in Executive Council
It is a matter for the national record that the Government of Anguilla’s budget for 2021 was approved by the beginning of January compared with previous occasions when there were uneasy delays.
The 2021 budget was approved, with very little debate, on December 18, 2020, by the House of Assembly. It was assented to by the Acting Governor, Mr. Perin Bradley, in the Executive Chambers, on January 8, in the presence of Premier Dr. Ellis Webster and other Cabinet members.
It is understood that there was no need for the budget to be approved by the UK Government which had already given its approval to the Medium Term Economic and Fiscal Plan on which the budget is based.
The 2021 budget calls for recurrent expenditure of EC$226.71 million excluding amortisation of EC$32.96 million. This is a 6.11 percent reduction, or EC$14.76 million variation, when compared with the 2020 approved recurrent budget of EC$241.47.
Recurrent revenue for 2021 is estimated at EC$229.82 million, a 9.32 percent decrease compared with the 2020 recurrent revenue estimate of EC$253.45 million.
The 2020 budget was not passed until the first three or four months of that year. Soon after that, due to the lockdown of the island, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the Anguillian economy and the budget, the UK Government gave Anguilla a grant of one million EC dollars in budgetary aid. That financial assistance continued until the end of the year.
Although the 2021 budget has been approved, the UK Government gave the Government of Anguilla thirty million EC dollars for additional expenditure.
