Afghan parliament rejected draft of the next year’s budget

Almaty. December 22. Silkroadnews – The Wolesi Jirga (the lower house of the Afghan Parliament) rejected the draft budget for the next fiscal year, Afghan news agency (AfTAG) reports.

The reason for rejection, according to the lawmakers’ view, was insufficient balance of budget expenditures allocated throughout the different provinces, as well as a lack of revenue producing projects and a number of other considerations.

The head of the parliamentary commission for financial and budgetary affairs Amir Khan Yar has noted that the draft budget had been discussed in various committees of the Wolesi Jirga.

According to him, besides the shortcomings mentioned the document does not provide for opportunity of revenue deficit in the coming year. The mechanism for the budget implementation has not been provided as well and the education field has not been given sufficient attention.

As a result, with six parliamentarians supporting the draft, the rest out of total 123 deputies present at the meeting rejected it.

Earlier, on November 27, Meshrano Jirga (the upper house of parliament) approved the draft budget with some recommendations aimed at balancing the development projects. The document then was submitted to be considered by the lower house parliamentarians.

According to the Ministry of Finance of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts on December 21, provides for 287 billion Afghanis ($4.27 billion) of current budget expenditures, of which 178 billion Afghanis are expected to be spent for development projects. With this 150 billion Afghanis, i.e. 32% of the total amount, are to be composed of the state’s internal revenues. The remaining funds are the support from the international community.

36% of the budget were allocated for security sector followed by 21% for infrastructure, 12% for education, 6% for agriculture and the remaining funds expected to be shared between the other purposes.