The State Minister of Finance Michael Halkitis says if all goes well the deficit of the country will dip to $70 million next year.

Minister Halkitis responded to the Bahamian community asking for the government to explain where the money collected from value added tax went after the first year.

“This year in our projections for the budget we projected 544 million, that is from July 1, 2015 to June 30 201. We forecasted a total revenue of 2.048 billion dollars but our spending is going to be 2.098 billion and so we still have a smaller deficit,” Minister Halkitis said.

In 2014, the deficit stood at $98 million and it climbed to $141million in the 2015/2016 period. According to the Minister of State for Finance, if all goes as planned that number will dip to $70 million next year.

In a recent report by the Central Bank, it noted that the National Debt had climbed to $6.5 billion. According to Minister Halkitis as a percentage of the country’s GDP, this figure will also go down next year.

“It is not as some people portray, as if the government is in a balanced position now that we have this pile of VAT money, that should go straight to the debt. We are not in a balanced position; we are in a deficit position. We are basically in a hole, a deep hole. The vat revenue has begun to get us out of this hole and we believe that if we continue to administer it and improve in our administration, we will eventually get to the point where we will still have a surplus,” Minister of state for finance said.

“I don’t want members of the public to be fixated on the number and if the number increases things are worst. You have to look at it based on the size of our economy.”