School aid to continue

FIJIANS can expect the back to school assistance to continue as part of the 2024/2025 budget.

This was confirmed by Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad as he called on members of the public to make their submissions ahead of the budget announcement later this year.

He added that the Fiscal Review Committee would be engaged to relook into some of the recommendations made last year.

“People will not have surprises,” he said.

“We’ve got the fiscal review to relook at some of the recommendations that they made last year. Assess how far we have gone in achieving some of the policies that we put in.

“All that will be put together as part of the formulation of the next budget. But I can say to the business community and people that government continues to listen, and they shouldn’t expect any big surprises.

“We laid the foundation last year. We are going to build on that and we are going to reassess the effectiveness of some of the policies.

“If it requires change, we will make the change and it will be a budget that will look after the interest of the people as we did last year.”

He said the 2024/2025 budget would also continue with the path of fiscal consolidation wherever possible, and also the third pillar of the budget would be to continue to support and put out policies for economic growth.

“The back to school support that has been a very popular policy by the Coalition Government to help our people, especially to focus on education. And so, people can expect that to continue in the next budget.

“You can expect policies to strengthen the delivery of services to our people and expect further investment into health and rural infrastructure.”