- The government prepares a budget to plan their income and expenditure for the next year.
- Each government minister requests an amount of money to run their department for the year.
- This request is made to the minister for finance.
- The Minister for Finance has to calculate how much revenue the government expects to receive from taxes and other sources.
- The Minister for Finance will then a make decision on how much money he will give to each department.
- The sum given may not be as much as the department wanted.
- When the Minister for Finance has decided how to allocate finance for the coming year, a national budget is drafted.
- A national budget is a document showing the governments planned revenue and expenditure for the next year.