A parliamentary committee assigned for the assessment of the budget draft on Saturday met with Finance Ministry officials to help bridge the gaps on the draft that has created a serious face-off between the two branches of the state for the last three weeks. 

The government has sent a third draft of the budget to the parliament with the hope that the legislative body will approve it for further proceedings, but some lawmakers said the amendments are not sufficient. 

The lawmakers said the government has added 22 billion Afs to the budget to increase salaries of government employees, but in the meantime, it has planned over 20,000 job cuts in government institutions.  

One member of the budget and finance committee of the House, Abdul Rauf Inami, said the government should have reduced at least 5 billion Afs from Code 21, which is for salaries of government employees, but he added that this amount has been increased by Afs 21 billion. 

MPs also criticized the government over inclusion of 17 billion Afs loans to the budget plan. 

“We need to make a wise decision when we see the government is sinking us in loans,” said Sediq Ahmad Osmani, a member of the parliament’s budget committee. 

According to Ministry of Finance, the following amendments have been brought to the third and latest draft of the current fiscal year’s budget:  

Inclusion of an additional 300 projects recommended by MPs 
 

• Reduction of 300 million Afs from the salaries of some government employees 

   

• Removal of the food distribution program from the budget 

   

• Allocation of 1.7 billion Afs for those employees who receive low salaries 

   

• And reduction of 1.5 billion Afs from discretionary codes   

  The acting minister of finance, Khalid Payenda, said those entities that are part of the National Technical Assistance (NTA) salary scale, will be paralyzed if their salaries are reduced.  

  “But I also agree with you about the misuse. There are some ministries that have 600 employees in their structure, but they are paid NTA salaries for 2,000 employees,” Payneda said. 
    
  The head of the finance ministry’s budget directorate, Nasir Ahmad, said that at least 1,100 projects have been dropped from the budget plan.  
  “300 projects were added today. There are things that demonstrate the flexibility of the government, so please you (Parliament) should also show some flexibility,” he added. 

  The parliamentary commissions are set to start discussing the new draft budget on Sunday. 

  After the assessment of the second draft, MPs listed 19 issues in the draft budget to be fixed.