The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Timothy Thahane has revealed that 2012/2013 budget presentation will be in January.

In an interview with LENA on Wednesday, Dr Thahane said the 2012/2013 budget will be presented on the 18 January 2012.

He mentioned that the reason for presenting it earlier than anticipated is to give those involved, time to discuss and scrutinize budget before the Parliament is dissolved.

Dr Thahane said it is expected that Parliament will be dissolved in March.

''We are not going home this December for the vacations as we are working hard to ensure that all will be in place in January,'' he maintained.

He stated that all these years, budget is presented in February unless when there are special cases such as elections.

For the 2011/2012 budget, the minister proposed a budget deficit equivalent to 15.0 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared with the budget out turn of 8.2 percent of GDP for 2010/2011.

Dr Thahane indicated that the total revenue and grants were expected to increase by 22.7 percent in 2011/2012 to M10038.3 million during 2011/2012, which is equivalent to 55.6 per cent of GDP.

Moreover, he said the total expenditure was expected to increase from 61.8 percent of GDP to 70.4 percent of GDP in 2011/2012 fiscal year.

This, the Minister said it is mainly due to both increases in recurrent and capital expenditures.

Source: LENA 22/12/2011