There won’t be any special budget training session for the Opposition says Finance Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

Opposition Whip Ratu Isoa Tikoca wrote to the Finance Ministry stating the Opposition wants to have a budget training session.

Sayed Khaiyum says officials from the Finance Ministry will not attend the Opposition’s session as they had been invited to the budget training session organized by the Ministry last month.

They talk about bipartisan approach to national issues, we held a bipartisan forum which everybody is invited where the Ministry officials is going to give them a full briefing and only a. handful of Opposition people turned up. Yes we acknowledge Hon. Tikoca had turned up, Hon. Salote Radrodro had turned up and some of the other members of Opposition, Hon. Dulakiverata had also turned up but there was only a handful of them that turned up. The others did not turn up. Now they want to have a separate session. That session won’t be held because we need to take a bipartisan approach to read the budget.

The briefing by the Ministry last month informed Members of the House on how to read and understand the budget.

Sayed-Khaiyum says this allows for more informed debate in the House.