…revised budget at Nu 97.63 billion

Thukten Zangpo

The National Assembly adopted the Budget Appropriation Bill for fiscal year 2024-25 with 42  “Yes” votes; three members abstained out of 45 members present in the session on July 4.

The House re-deliberated the Bill after receiving three recommendations from the National Council (NC).

The budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 was revised to Nu 97.63 billion after dropping Nu 25.99 million capital budget proposed for Green Bhutan Corporation Limited.

In the budget report, the government had allocated Nu 97.65 billion for the fiscal year.

The chairperson of the Economic and Finance Committee (EFC), MP Rinchen Wangdi, presented the National Council’s three recommendations.

Firstly, the NC recommended the government to deploy an adequate number of human resources at all levels, establish effective mechanisms to ensure optimal utilisation of the capital budget or consider adjusting the budget based on the implementation capacity of budgetary bodies.

The NC observed that 20 percent of the annual capital budget remained underutilised.

Secondly, the NC recommended the government to enhance recurrent budget allocation to the two houses of parliament to enable the MPs to discharge their duties and to protect national legislative and policy formulation from undue external influence.

The NC recommended Nu 27.8 million for National Assembly and Nu 23.69 million for the NC.

The revision in recurrent budget comes to Nu 178.37 million from Nu 150.57 million for National Assembly, and Nu 122.6 million from Nu 98.91 million for the NC.

Thirdly, the government should formulate plans to handle economic shocks by properly managing finances, including savings during good times, adjusting debt strategies to reduce currency risks, and developing quick-response policies for economic crises.

Rinchen Wangdi said that the first and third recommendations were in line with the recommendations made by the National Assembly and no further discussion is required.

With regard to the second recommendation the chairperson proposed that the finance ministry could look into it during the mid-term budget review.

The House adopted 16 recommendations on the budget submitted by the EFC on June 25.

The Budget Appropriation Bill for fiscal year 2024-25 and Supplementary Budget Appropriation Bill for fiscal year 2023-24 will be submitted for Royal Assent as per the rule of law.