Minutes after receving the Consulative Forums email today from Lilian Missick, H.E Governor Gordon Wetherell responded by saying: 
I was sorry to learn from the Chair of the Consultative Forum that tomorrow’s Budget session has now been cancelled. As the Chair has explained in her statement earlier today, there are revenue measures which must be addressed immediately if the Government is to meet its obligations and to reach one of the milestones set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 9 December 2010 (‘implementation of budget measures to put the Turks and Caicos Islands Government on track to achieve a fiscal surplus in the financial year ending March 2013’).
Ministers made clear in that statement that the holding of elections in 2012 would depend on the milestones being reached. The public debate on the Budget in the Forum has already been postponed once. Any further delay in enactment of the budget would cost the Government money in lost revenue: money that we cannot afford to lose. In such circumstances, the Government would have to identify ways to recoup the lost income; for example, by increasing the level at which we propose to introduce the Customs Processing Fee.
I regret that the Forum is missing the opportunity for a serious debate on the Budget measures. It would have also been an opportunity for the Forum to present their final recommendations to the Ministry of Finance. But, in the absence of tomorrow’s Consultative Forum meeting, I have no choice but to take the necessary steps now enact the Budget. I have asked the Permanent Secretary for Finance to publish the statement he would have given to the Forum tomorrow. I hope that this will enable the public to see for themselves the Budget measures which are being introduced, the reasons for them and their impact.
The statement will also show the extent to which the comments made in closed session by Forum members (as also in meetings of the Advisory Council) have, wherever possible, been taken into account; for example, with respect to proposals for a sales tax on electricity and water. To further help the public, I have also asked for a summary of the budget measures to be published tomorrow.
I am grateful to the Chair of the Forum for her efforts to ensure that members of the Forum have been kept informed of, and able to comment on, the Government’s developing thinking on necessary revenue and expenditure measures if we are to meet our targets with respect to the milestones and achieving a budget surplus; and were afforded the opportunity to make any final recommendations in public session.
I regret that her wise counsel on the importance of tomorrow’s planned meeting has not been heeded by all members.
GORDON WETHERELL
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