Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers on May 9th, 2022

Presidency of the Council of Ministers

Eighth Constitutional Government

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Press Release

Extraordinary Meeting of the Council of Ministers on May 9th, 2022

The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace, in Dili, and approved a Law Proposal, presented by the Minister of Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes, relative to the Major Planning Options for 2023. The existence of a Law for the Major Planning Options is a requirement of Law no. 2/2022, of February 10th, the State Budget and Public Financial Management Framework Law. This Law aims to approve the annual and multi-annual options, in terms of planning with impact on the State Budget and the multi-annual budget programming, which will allow for the full implementation of programme budgeting.

The Major Planning Options for 2023 present, by Article 47 of Law no. 2/2022 of February 10, the identification of the budgetary strategy and the main options in terms of planning with an impact on the State Budget for the following budgetary year and the four subsequent years, the multi-year budgetary programming and an analysis of the projections of the main macroeconomic indicators with an impact on the State Budget and their evolution.

This Bill will now be submitted to the National Parliament.

The Council of Ministers also approved the draft Decree-Law, presented by the Minister of State Administration, Miguel Pereira de Carvalho, regarding the Uma ba Ema Kbiit Laek Plus (UKL+) programme. This draft Decree-Law had already been approved in the meeting of the Council of Ministers on May 6th, 2022, however, due to some amendments being introduced in the final drafting phase, it became necessary to submit it to a new approval by the Council of Ministers. This Decree-Law establishes a special provisioning regime for the implementation of the UKL+ measure. With this new regime, two options are now foreseen: one, with the attribution of the subsidies through the PNDS village (suco) structures, and another with the possibility of centralised provisioning, to achieve economies of scale and savings of economic resources.

The programme aims to improve the habitability conditions of houses that serve as permanent homes for the most vulnerable households, in situations where the house is in bad condition and they have no other house to reside in. For the UKL+ programme, the most vulnerable households are considered to be those whose average daily income does not exceed US$ 1.25 and whose homes are in a poor state of conservation.

Households can be beneficiaries of one of the following support modalities:

a) Financial support for improvement, conservation or repair works in their housing, up to a maximum of US$ 13000;

b) Support in the form of building materials for the replacement of the roofing and lining materials of their home, up to a maximum of US$ 4000. END

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