The financial period of the Commission is the two calendar years following the date of its regular meeting (regular meetings take place every other year). Budget estimates are submitted to the Contracting Parties not less than 60 days prior to the opening of the regular meeting. Funding of the budget is by annual financial contributions made by the members of the Commission, and are payable in Euros or United States Dollars.

The total Budget approved by the Commission for the year 2024 amounts to 5,806,790.36 Euros. Past budgets are shown below, as well as the Budgetary Statement and Independent Auditor’s reports for financial years 2019 to 2022.

The Madrid Protocol, which is in force since March 2005 is used for the calculation of the subsequent budget contributions. This scheme divides the Contracting Parties into four groups (essentially based on classification of market economies and per capita GNP, and on tuna catch and canned production), with every Contracting Party in each group being assigned a portion of the Commission's total budget. The intent of this scheme is to reduce the financial burden on less developed countries. The budget calculation scheme is summarized as follows:

• US$1,000 for the basic Commission fee and US$1,000 for each Panel membership.
• Group D countries are assigned [0.25] percent of the budget.
• Group C countries are assigned [1.0] percent of the budget.
• Group B countries are assigned [3.0] percent of the budget.
• Group A countries are assigned the percentage of the Budget remaining after assignment to the other three Groups.

Notes:

• Group A: Countries with developed market economies.
• Group B: Countries not included in Group A, with per capita GNP exceeding [US$4,000] (adjusted to 1991 dollar values) and with combined tuna catch and canning exceeding [5,000 MT].
• Group C: Countries not included in Groups A or B, with per capita GNP exceeding [US$4,000] or whose combined catch and canned production exceeds [5,000 MT];
• Group D: Countries not included in Groups A, B or C.

The US dollar amounts and MT amounts in [ ] are variables, which may be modified, by Commission decision.

For more information, see Financial Regulations (Regulation 4) in the Basic Texts.