Government slashes expenditure on foreign trips, advertising

Acting Treasury CS Ukur Yatani

The government will cut unnecessary expenditure, such as trips abroad by officials and advertising by government departments, to rein in a gaping fiscal deficit, the acting finance cabinet secretary has said.

“The cuts will be brutal and will be sustained,” Ukur Yatani told a meeting to plan the government’s budget for the next fiscal year, adding that he expected the deficit to drop to 3.5 per cent of GDP by the 2022/23 fiscal year.