Afghanistan Times
Related Articles
Abdul Zuhoor Qayomi-KABUL: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Wednesday submitted the draft budget for next fiscal year to the Wolesi Jirga (WJ) or Lower House of the parliament for approval.
Minister of Finance, Mohammad Eklil Hakemi, submitted the draft budget for the next Afghan fiscal year (1395) to the Wolesi Jirga with a total outlay of $7.3 billion.
The general budget of the year is $4.5 billion (68 percent) and development budget is $2.8 billion (39 percent). International donations make 68 percent ($4.9 billion) of the total budget.
According to the MoF $2.4 billion (50 percent) of the international donations has been allocated for ordinary budget. Most part of the donations would go to the security sector.
Nearly $61 million of the whole donations is without ticket loans of the previous years. The Islamic development Bank, Saudi Development Trust Fund, Asian Development Bank and Italy are main partners who have paid loans for some infrastructure projects.
Around $1.3 billion of none arbitrary donations that the government could not spent in the solar year 1394 (March 21, 2015-16) was included in the next fiscal year budget while the amount of recently received or pledged donations is $811.3 million.
The development budget of the next year shows 14.5 percent increase as compared to current year while the ordinary budget (total Afs163 million) shows one percent decrease, Eklil Hakemi told lawmakers.
He added that around Afs16 billion (8.5percent) of the total development budget was allocated for projects that would protect environment; Afs18.9 billion for rural development; and Afs8.9 billion for agriculture sector.
The ministry has allocated 13 percent of the development budget for healthcare and 12.4 percent for education sectors.
According to the minister eight to ten percent of the new arbitrary budget has been allocated for health and economic management.
