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Estimates of Operating Expenditure
87. After reviewing the
guidelines on operating expenditure which I laid down
last year, I have reduced estimated operating
expenditure for 2005?6 by $2.6 billion, from
$210.6 billion to $208 billion. This
reflects the austerity drive by government departments
and takes into account their actual operational
requirements. In
fact, the civil service establishment has been reduced
from 170
600 in
March last year to about 166 000 at present, and
will be further reduced to about 163 300 by March
2006. However,
even budgeting for the latest forecast expenditure
level, the Government will still record an operating
deficit of $15.4 billion.
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