Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has given his total support to the K28.3 billion 2025 National Budget, commending Treasurer Hon. Ian Ling-Stuckey for handing it down in Parliament on Friday (29.11.24).

The 2025 National Budget, with the theme ‘Securing Papua New Guinea in 2025 and Beyond’, focuses its attention firstly on addressing Law & Justice and policing challenges in the country as it works at continuing to ease living pressures off families; continues Government priorities under the Medium-Term Development Plan IV; and works at reducing deficit under its 13-year budget recovery strategy.

The K28.3 billion budget is K980 million larger than this year’s (2024) budget of K27.3 billion with revenue at K25.4 billion, which is an increase of over K2 billion on the 2024 Budget of K23.3 billion.

Treasurer Ling-Stuckey told Parliament during his budget delivery speech the continuing increases in revenue is steadily reducing budget deficit, which has fallen from 8.9 percent of GDP in 2020 down to 2.2 percent of GDP in 2025 “only one quarter the level in just five years”.

“Our debt sustainability continues to improve with the debt to GDP ratio dropping down to 47.4 percent in 2025. No matter what the Opposition claims, this is genuine budget repair, built on the back of hard, responsible, responsive, and caring work by the Marape-Rosso Government keeping on the path to a surplus by 2027, and the option for the next Parliament to start paying all our debt by 2034,” Treasurer Ling-Stuckey said.

The Treasurer also said economic growth is increasing from K122 billion in 2024 to K136 billion in 2025; and pointed out a 5.2 percent growth in the non-resource economy.

In line with the budget theme and to alleviate grave concerns on Law & Order in the country, Police will be given K703 million as the Marape-Rosso Government is committed to addressing Law & Order challenges, including increasing police manpower to 10,000 by 2030. The PNG Defence Force is also being funded in its goods and services, wages and capital budget, while the PNG Judiciary gets a 25 percent funding increase to support more judges coming in.

In alleviating living pressures on families, the Marape-Rosso Government continues its Household Assistance Support Package (HASP) into its fourth year in the 2025 budget. Goods & Services Tax will be removed from 13 essential items beginning 1 July 2025 (see separate press release). Government will continue the K20,000 tax-free threshold, and lift stamp duty exemption threshold for first home buyers from K500,000 to K700,000, as it continues paying school project subsidies for an estimated 2.3 million students around the country.

Treasurer Ling-Stuckey says the HASP for 2025 will total K685 million, and altogether since its installation, will be worth K2.3 billion of assistance to struggling families in the country.

For the government’s Capital Investment budget in 2025, this will be at K10.3 billion. This will boost the Pangu-led Government’s Public Investment Program worth K7.6 billion which will continue developing infrastructure in roads and bridges, wharves and jetties, airports and airstrips, power supply lines, and communication lines throughout the country.

Education and Health, both a big focus of the Marape-led Government, are being fairly supported. Education is getting K4.4 million – a 12 percent increase from last year; while Health will receive K2.7 billion – 9.4 percent increase.

Prime Minister Marape, in commending the budget, said the 2025 National Budget reflects his government’s continuing commitment to good fiscal policies aimed at driving the 13-year debt recovery strategy toward a more stabilized economy for Papua New Guinea beyond 2027.

He commended the Internal Revenue Commission and PNG Customs for their continued successes in collecting another round of high revenues to prop the 2025 budget.

“IRC continues to collect another record high revenue even without introducing any new tax. This is evidence of growth in our economy as shown in the positive results of the non-resource sector,” he said, adding that he was also pleased to note the 5.2 percent growth in the non-resource economy in 2025.

Prime Minister Marape commended Treasurer Ling-Stuckey and his team; Planning Minister Hon. Sir Ano Pala and his team; and Finance Minister Hon. Miki Kaeok and his team for their hard work in designing the budget.

“When I came into office in May 2019, I boldly stated in my maiden speech that I wanted Papua New Guinea to be a K200 billion economy by 2030. The 2025 Budget is a testament to the progress we are making towards this goal,” Prime Minister Marape said.

“The budget’s key features include considerable economic growth, with non- resource growth reaching 5.2 percent from 4.5 percent in 2024, 4.7 percent in

2023, 5.9 percent in 2022, and 4.2 percent in 2021. This consistent growth in the non-resource economy demonstrates our nation’s resilience and economic strength as we move toward the envisioned K200 billion economy by 2030,” said Prime Minister Marape.