Government gives SBD$3.93 Million in tithes to churches

The Cabinet has formally announced the initial payments of tithes to the Churches. This was revealed to journalists by the Acting Prime Minister Mr. Gordon Lilo during a press conference.

Mr. Lilo told journalists that the government had made a policy to pay 10 percent of every revenue surplus it collected in the previous year. Last year, the government collected a SBD$39.3 million dollars surplus a 16 percent growth in revenue from 2005 revenue collection and therefore the Acting Prime Minister announced that the government is tithing SBD$3.93 million dollars.

Lilo told journalists that the government however will not give the money through the traditional means. Instead the government intends to distribute the tithes equally between the 50 constituencies and the constituencies to the local churches. He justifies the method of distribution as avoiding the bureaucracy of the churches.

".in that way it goes directly to the local churches rather than getting caught up in the bureaucracy of the Churches in Honiara; we wanted to give the tithes right down to the local churches right there in the rural areas."