On 7 November 2013, the Minister of Finance tabled three financial papers in the National Assembly requesting the Assembly to approve of $12.385 billion in supplementary estimates, as summarized below:
The Assembly had approved of the 2013 budget in the sum of $163 billion against the Government’s original request of $208.8 billion. A similar approval was given in respect of 2012 for $172 billion against the original request of $192.8 billion. In this latter case, the Government mounted a legal challenge to the decision to reduce the budget on the grounds that: (a) it was unconstitutional for the