Gov’t makes fifth withdrawal of US$50M from ‘oil fund’

See the full statement issued by the Ministry of Finance below:

Senior Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has announced that the Government has made its fifth drawdown this year from the Natural Resource Fund in accordance with the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act 2021.

The Minister indicated that pursuant to Section 16 of the NRF Act 2021, a further US$50 million was withdrawn from the NRF in September, equivalent to G$10.4 billion.

It would be recalled that in August and September, amounts totaling US$200 million, equivalent to G$41.6 billion had been transferred from the Natural Resource Fund to the Consolidated Fund to finance national development priorities and in February and May of this year, the Government made withdrawals amounting to US$400 million equivalent to G$83.2 billion. This brings the accumulated withdrawals from the NRF for the year 2023 to US$650 million, equivalent to G$135.2 billion.

In keeping with the NRF Act 2021, as part of the Budget 2023 process, Parliamentary approval was granted for a total of US$1.002 billion to be transferred during fiscal year 2023.

The PPP/C Government will continue to work aggressively through sound and transformative investments of oil resources from the NRF, utilising these resources in a clear and transparent manner, to the benefit of present and future generations.