The Afghan government institutions have spent more than 22 percent of their development budgets in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the Ministry of Finance spokesman Shamroz Khan Masjidi said on Saturday. 

The institutions have spent at least AFs28 billion from the overall AFs124 billion of the development budget, Masjidi said. 

Masjidi said that their aim is to spend 50 percent of the fiscal year’s budget in the first six months of the year and 100 percent by the end of the year.

“According to the recent statistics, the government has spent over 22 percent of the development budget and 28 percent of the ordinary budget which shows 13 percent increase against last year,” said Masjidi.

The Finance Ministry has allocated AFs399 billion for the 1398 fiscal year’s budget, 69 percent of which has been allocated for the standard budget while the remaining 39 percent has been allocated for the development budget.

According to the ministry, from the AFs399 billion, AFs 275 billion will be allocated to the standard budget and the remainder will be put aside for the development budget.

Experts said the government should spend the budget transparently and in a balanced manner.

“The implemented projects will have high quality, the efficiency of the projects will increase and the distance between the government and the people will evade if we can spend the budget based on the plan,” said Qais Mohammadi, a university lecturer.