Parliament Appears Posed to Table the Budget 2002

(Tbilisi, January 25, Civil Georgia) – Budget 2002 came under bitter criticism today when being reviewed by the Parliament in a second reading. None of the factions supports the current draft.

MPs argue that none of the changes proposed during the first reading were incorporated in a draft. “I have a feeling that the Minister of Finance tries to table the budget on purpose,” says Giorgi Targamadze, Revival Union. Most MPs appeared posed to decline the budget.

Parliamentarians voted for the controversial draft in a first reading in the beginning of January, on a condition to foresee increase budget spending in a number of areas, including defense and salaries for the teachers. Georgian government is under IMF pressure not to increase spending.

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