There are many measures in the budget to help our people - Prof. Prasad

There are many measures in the budget which are designed to help our people, particularly those in the lower income category and are being ignored by critics who are hell bent on gaining some political mileage.

This has been highlighted by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad who says critics must firstly understand that 22 items including prescribed medicine have zero vat.

He says in addition to that, the government has reduced duty on items that most people consume daily such as meat where prices are expected to go down.

Prof. Prasad says the critics do not talk about the increases in social welfare allowances in all categories, increase in social pension rates and increases in health, agriculture, and education budgets.

He says the forgiving of TELS loans has helped more than 50,000 families who do not now have a burden of paying their debts.

The Deputy Prime Minister says this is a huge relief to thousands of young people and their parents and these savings obviously is an addition to their take home pay.

He further says they also forget that soon after the coalition came into government, it provided $200 each for more than 214,000 students to get back to school.

Prof. Prasad says additionally, $45 million has again been allocated in the 2023-2024 budget to continue the back-to-school support.

He says this means that again, before the school opens in January 2024, more than 200,000 children right from preschool to high school will get $200 each to support them getting back to school.

Prof. Prasad says critics know that 2023-2024 budget is a well thought out and balanced budget which looks after our people in the lower income categories but also ensures that government earns enough revenue to deal with the massive debt burden and to fix our deteriorating infrastructure in health, roads and water.