Following weeks of tension between the Afghan government and the parliament, the Presidential Palace in a statement on Wednesday said that the cabinet approved the third draft of the national budget for the fiscal year 1400.
The Afghan parliament has rejected the first two drafts, citing major shortcomings in the document.
The Presidential Palace has requested the parliament to approve the budget draft this time.
“The President has directed the Ministry of Finance to refer the draft budget to the National Assembly. We call on the National Assembly to approve the draft budget as soon as possible,” said Dawa Khan Menapal, a deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani.
Mixed reactions in Parliament:
“Honorable MPs, do not approve the budget plan at the request of few people,” said Karim Atal, a member of parliament from Helmand.
“If the budget comes ten times to the National Assembly and discussions focus only on approving or rejecting it, I will again raise the red card against the budget,” said MP Sediq Ahmad Osmani.
Parliament’s speaker Mir Rahman Rahmani has said that the government has adopted a divisive policy regarding the budget.
“Unemployment has increased. Security and criminal cases have increased, but the government, instead of focusing on these issues, tries to split members of the parliament,” Rahmani said.
“It is shameful for any lawmaker if they raise the green card, the history and the Afghan people will not forgive him,” said Belqis Roshan, an MP from Farah.
Meanwhile, members of parliament’s financial and budget commission have said that 24,000 people received nearly Afs 250,000 in salary pay under a program named NTE in 1399 (2020).
The commission’s members said that the overall money paid to them last year is about six billion Afs.
“Even drivers were paid NTE salaries while NTE salaries were supposed to be paid to the people with higher expertise,” said MP Mohammad Azim Kibrzani.
The Ministry of Finance said amendments have been applied to a third draft for the current fiscal year’s budget plan, which made an effort to equalize public servants’ salaries.
One part of this amendment includes the transfer of nearly Afs 1.5 billion from Code 22, which is for government office expenses, and nearly Afs 1 billion from discretionary budgetary codes to equalize the salaries of the government employees, said Sayed Naseer Ahmad, the head of the national budget department of the ministry.
Adjusting the salaries of government employees was one of the 19 requests for amendments in the budget plan by lawmakers.
Officials in the ministry said the new draft will be sent to the parliament on Wednesday.
The budget plan for the current fiscal year that started on Dec. 21, 2020, was rejected twice by the parliament, which cited 19 reasons for doing so.
The government has an estimated Afs 473 billion ($6 billion) for the current year’s budget, including Afs 162 billion ($2 billion) for the development budget and Afs 311 billion ($4 billion) for the ordinary budget.