Parliament Discusses Budgetary Amendments

Parliament discussed the proposed increase in state expenditure by GEL 431 million on September 14.

According to the draft amendments presented by Finance Minister Nika Gilauri, total expenditure of GEL 5.1 billion will mean a GEL 400 million shortfall.   

The lion?s share of extra funds, GEL 316 million (about USD 190 million), initially set at GEL 320 million, will be allocated to the Ministry of Defense. As a result, total defense spending for 2007 will exceed GEL 1.271 billion (approximately USD 765 million).

Another major beneficiary of the increased state expenditure will be the Interior Ministry, which will receive an additional GEL 51 million (about USD 30.7 million), out of which GEL 11.5 million (about USD 6.9 million) will be allocated to the Border Police and GEL 125,000 (USD 75,300) to the counter-intelligence department.

The draft budgetary amendments also outline the additional funding of other ministries as follows:

Ministry of Justice ? GEL 11.8 million on repair and construction of prisons;
Ministry of Agriculture ? GEL 5.5 million on grape harvesting;
Ministry of Culture and Sport ? GEL 4.7 million;
The Central Election Commission ? GEL 3 million;
The South Ossetian provisional administration ? GEL 767,000;
Various regional projects ? GEL 40.0 million.

Opposition lawmakers have criticised the draft amendments, saying priority areas had been ignored. They also warned that the spending overspill could encourage inflation and undermine macro-economic stability.

Parliament is due to approve the amendments on September 25.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)