KABUL (Pajhwok Afghan News) — The Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Wednesday said it would present the 1398 (solar islamic calendar) fiscal year’s draft budget before the parliament on November 6. Afghanistan fiscal year begins on December 22.

Obaidullah Raqibi, deputy finance minister, appeared before the Wolesi Jirga’s today session for presenting information about revenue collection, budget spending and budget preparations for the next fiscal year. He said the budget draft for next fiscal year would be presented to the Wolesi Jirga until November 6.

Under Article 98 of the Constitution, the general and development budgets are prepared in light with Meshrano Jirga’s recommendations before being sent to the Wolesi Jirga for final approval.

Raqibi said 399 bln afghanis were considered for the next fiscal year’s budget, with 124 bln afghanis (31%) going to development while 275 bln (69%) to general spending, 196 bln of general budget going to salaries. The development budget was considered based on budgetary units’ capacity and government resources.

Raqibi said 188 bln afghanis of the budget would come from domestic revenues and the rest from foreign aid.

The general budget of the ongoing (1397) fiscal year is 267.2 bln afghanis and development budget 93.7 bln afghanis. The next fiscal year’s budget is 10% more compared to the current year.

Government revenue
Obaidullah Raqibi said a total of 149 bln afghanis were collected in revenue this year despite some problems in the collection process — 4.7 bln more than the target.

He added 14.6 bln afghanis more revenue was collected this year compared to the last year. According to him, so far, 72% of general budget of the current year has been spent and the percentage would increase to 98 until the next one and a half months. However, he said 59.6% of the development budget was spent this year and the percentage would increase to 90 until the end of current fiscal year.