Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: The Wolesi Jirga (WJ) on Wednesday approved the fiscal budget for year 2015 with eight percent deficit in development budget.
According to the data provided by the Financial and Budget Committee (FBC) of the WJ total volume of the budge is Afs436 billion. Afs282.48 billion was allocated for ordinary budget and Afs152.68 billion for development budget. Afs132 billion of the ordinary budget was provided from the domestic revenues while Afs161 billion by international community. Similarly, Afs137 billion for the development budget was provided from foreign donations and Afs3.6 billion from domestic revenues.
“There is eight percent deficit in development budget whereas there is not deficit in ordinary budget,” said Ameer Khan Yar, Chief of the FBC.
Ministry of Finance (MoF) hast not allocated funds for the new projects due to lack of fund said Yar, adding that the MoF has only prioritized those projects which are going to be completed in the near future. Projects started or contracts were awarded in 2014 were also prioritized.
According to Yar the MoF accepted to pay money to the private construction companies who completed projects but not received any funds.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers rejected budget for the Chief Executive Office and Economic Council of the government. The Wolesi Jirga said that budget for the two bodies could not be approved unless the two newly established organizations were approved by the parliament.
Spokesperson to the MoF, Abdul Qadir Jilani, in a telephonic interview told Afghanistan Times that Afs309 billion (71percent of the total budget) was provided by the international donors while the remaining 29 percent is contributed by the domestic revenues.
Security, health, education and agriculture sectors were prioritized in the fiscal year budget, he said, adding that 67.4 percent was allocated to the military and security institutions.
It is worth to mention that the MPs also rejected a decree issued by the ex-president Hamid Karzai for issuing salaries and armored cars to the retired ministers, advisers and general directors for five years. The MPs termed the decree against the constitution. (Abdul Zuhoor Qayomi)
