| Azaraimy HH |
THE Ministry of Finance (MoF) has been allocated a budget of B$747.32 million for the 2018/2019 Financial Year.
Deliberating on the proposed budget for the ministry at the Legislative Council session yesterday, Minister of Finance II YB Dato Seri Paduka Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah said of this amount, B$686,520,908 is needed to finance recurring expenditures in various areas while B$55,807,405 is earmarked for the payment of staff salaries under the ministry.
The rest, B$5,000,000, is for development expenditure including to finance the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam Stock Exchange.
The minister said out of the allocation for recurring expenditure, an amount of B$545,574,383 is for recurring expenses under the miscellaneous services of the ministry, especially for the shared use for all ministries and government departments, and to finance holiday allowances and fares, expert and advisor visits and education allowance for government officers and staff.
Also under the recurring expenditure, B$5 million is needed to finance small and medium enterprises (SMEs); while B$4 million is for financing maintenance and upgrading of industrial sites infrastructure; B$20 million for programmes and projects towards supporting the country’s ‘focus expenditures’; and $15 million to bring in experts and skilled educators to improve literacy and numeracy; and $4 million for emergency management training services at CAE Brunei MPTC.
Earlier in his speech, the minister said to improve the effectiveness of government revenue collection, the Ministry of Finance will be implementing the One Common Billing System (OCBS) in stages, for government agencies that do not have a billing system. The system aims to issue and manage bills as well as collect government revenue in a more efficient manner.
The minister said several programmes have been implemented to strengthen the human resources development such as the Ministry of Finance Development Management and Leadership Programme (MoF-LEAD); Structural Annual Training Programme (MoF-PLB); Inculcating the Concept of Learning Organisation Programme (MoF-LO); Motivational Talk and Talk Series (MoF-Motivational Talk & Talk Series); Ministry of Finance Mentoring Programme (MoF-Mentor); and Ministry of Finance Induction Programme (MOF-Induksi).
The minister also highlighted the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam Accounting Standard on January 1, 2018.
In the effort to ease trade processes, the Royal Customs and Excise Department has introduced a programme called ‘Sutera Lane Merchant Scheme SLMS’ starting September 2017. The programme aims to speed up import permit approval, export processes as well as the declaration application made by selected companies participating in the programme.
It also encourages importers, exporters and customs agents to raise their level of compliance to the procedures, regulations and laws being enforced in the country.
The minister also highlighted the introduction of TAFIS e-Invoice Portal by the Treasury Department since September 4, 2017. The portal facilitates suppliers to upload invoices online and help them improve transparency towards suppliers.
Beginning October 23, 2017, the Treasury Department has also extended the SMS Notification services (that was initially limited to only civil service personnel) to companies that are dealing with the government, to inform them of the status of invoice payment. This initiative aims to increase the level of transparency of the Ministry of Finance’s services.