2007 budget

[NewsWhore]

In 2007 the Congress, the judicial authorities, the municipalities and most government ministers will receive more or less the same budget in 2007 as they did in 2006. The only departments due to receive more money will be Education, Health, and Science and Technology. The Attorney General's office will get an increase of RD$300 million, but that is because they will take on the new responsibility for feeding prisoners in the country's jails in 2007. The total budget for 2007 will be for a total of RD$254 billion. Technical Secretary to the Presidency Temistocles Montas said that expected revenues for 2007 would be RD$212, 610 billion. This includes the RD$17,500 billion collected from the fiscal reform. Montas said that due to agreements with the IMF there will be a surplus of RD$29,135 million, or 2.5% of the GDP. He also explained that RD$19 billion of the budget would go towards the payment of interest rates, RD$5,827 billion for funds that will be transferred for the capitalization of the Central Bank, and RD$65 billion towards payment of the external debt. The subsidy for the energy sector will be for RD$400 million, while there will be an RD$2,784 billion subsidy for energy consumption for institutions that can't have their energy cut off. This represents an increase of RD$1,111 million. Social programs will help an additional 300,000 people through the Solidarity Program and 800,000 more people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Social Security program. For 2007 there will an expected 4.73% deficit as well as an expected 6% growth in GDP.

More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)