Last week a report in PLUS and some other media about the Auditor General’s report on the Namibia Tourism Board for 2002/3 and 2003/4 referred to profits of several million N$. The NTB this week said there were no profits, as it operates on a government grant. Apart from the annual government grant, registration fees are charged on the registrations of regulated tourism establishments. In addition to a tourism levy introduced in November 2004. From the initial government grant of N$15.9 million for the first year of operation (2002/3), the amount referred to as a profit (N$5.3 million) was merely the total operational funds available in all operational bank accounts, the NTB said in a statement. The NTB received government funding of N$28 million during 2003/04 from which it could secure an N$ 9.4 million operational surplus. This 2003/04 surplus along with the 2002/03 surplus totalled reserves to N$ 14.7 million available for its 2004/05 budget. The NTB estimated its new budget at N$ 32 million. "Unfortunately and rather disappointingly the government grant for 2004/05 … was only N$17.8 million", the NTB said. Its huge budget deficit was then financed by the reserves that were thus depleted entirely. The 2005/06 proposed government grant is approximately N$ 9 million short and the NTB must revise its budget.