The 2008 Budget will be announced on 23rd November, 2007.

Cabinet approved this date yesterday following a submission by the Interim Minister for Finance Mahendra Chaudhry.

He added the date is within the provisions of the Financial Management Act 2004, which requires the minister to table the budget for the next financial year on or before 30th November.

Chaudhry said the main reason for the proposed announcement date is to enable the ministry to utilise the most recent figures to forecast revenue in the 2008 Budget.

He said in the past years, the Ministry of Finance used revenue figures up to September as a base for its year end projections. However, for 2008 the ministry proposes to utilise October revenue out-turn as a basis for estimating revenue forecast next year.

According to Chaudhry this would provide government with more realistic year-end revenue estimates given the lower than projected collections experienced this year.