400-Page ‘Budget Book’ Now Available Online
The full 400-page ‘Budget Book’ containing the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the Year 2015/16, is now available online, with open data website Bermuda.io posting the entire document, which can be accessed here.
Finance Minister Bob Richards delivered the 2015/16 Budget on Friday [Feb 20], in which he said that gross public debt will stand at $2.185 billion as of March 21 2015; the borrowing requirement in 2015/16 estimated at $125 million; $170 million budgeted for debt service this year and the overall deficit is budgeted to be $220 million.
The Minister also revealed that Airport Departure Tax will be raised from $35 to $50 per passenger, Duty on fuel will be raised by 5 cents per litre in April 2015, Payroll tax will be set at 14.5% in 2015/16, Corporate Service Tax Rate will be raised from 6% to 7%, and Payroll concessions in place for the hospitality, restaurant & retail sectors will be partially rolled back in 2014/15 with businesses in these sectors paying rate of 5.5%.
This is much appreciated, thank you.
Why the dislike though?
It takes a private citizen volunteering their time to publish what should be readily available to all voters in Bermuda. But of course the civil service is an efficient, well oiled machine, right?
Its sad to know that there’s a whole department of civil servants that call themselves the Dept of Communication. What do they do all day ?????