National Assembly: five days of budgetary debates starting this Monday

The budget debates begin this Monday at 11:30 a.m. with the intervention of the leader of the opposition, Arvin Boolell. According to the established program, the five days of the week will be devoted to debates with the last speaker, that is to say the Prime Minister, Pravind Jugnauth, speaking on Friday afternoon followed by the Minister of Finance, Renganaden Padayachy, to summarize the debates.

No Private Notice Question (PNQ) is scheduled for Monday. Also on Tuesday, no PNQ or parliamentary questions appear on the program due to the Supplementary Appropriation (2023/24) Bill and the Appropriation (2024/25) Bill. The latter will go to second reading. It makes provision for the issuance of a total sum not exceeding Rs 216.8 billion from the Consolidated Fund to cover expenditure, both recurrent and investment, relating to government services for the financial year 2024-2025.

On the other hand, the Supplementary Appropriation (2023-2024) Bill will pass third reading on Tuesday.

This text of law makes provision for an allocation of Rs 6.7 billion to cover additional expenses relating to the operation of the government for the financial year 2023-2024.

The opposition leader's first PNQ is scheduled for this Wednesday. “We will ask questions that we think will help elucidate points of public interest. We hope that the Speaker will play the game,” says Arvin Boolell.

According to an agreement signed between the Government Chief Whip, Kavi Doolub, and the Opposition Whip, Patrick Assirvaden, on June 3, the opposition was given 16 hours to intervene during the budget debates. A total of 27 hours is allocated to ministers, Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS) and government back-benchers for their interventions in the budget debates.

After the debates, MPs will have to review the estimates for the different sectors during the Committee of Supply for the 2024/25 Budget. This stage should not take more than two days. Then comes the last stage of the budgetary process, that is to say debates on the Finance Bill and its adoption to enshrine into law the various amendments to the legislation proposed by Renganaden Padayachy in his budget and annex. This could take place around three weeks after the Committee of Supply.