DUSHANBE, October 1, 2011, Asia-Plus – The government discussed the draft national budget for 2012 at a September 30 meeting, presided over by President Emomali Rahmon, the presidential press service reports.
The meeting also considered budget indices for 2013-2014.
Speaking at the meeting, President Rahmon stressed that priorities of the government’s economic policy for 2012-2014 include acceleration of the pace of development of real sectors of the economy, including energy, transportation, communication, agriculture, as well as the private sector.
In a report released at the meeting, Minister of Finance Safarali Najmiddinov noted that the revenue part of the country’s national budget for 2012 will stand at 10.16 billion somoni (equivalent to more than 2.1 U.S. billion dollars) and its expenditure part will stand at 10.34 billion somoni (equivalent to some 2.2 billion U.S. dollars).
“Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rise 7.0 percent in 2012, reaching 35.8 billion somoni (equivalent to 7.5 billion U.S. dollars), and inflation for 2012 is expected to stand at 10.5 percent,” the minister said.
According to him, social spending will account for nearly 50 percent of budget allocations. “The budget projects expenditure of more than 5 billion somoni in education, health care and social protection,” Najmiddinov noted.
The budget earmarks 3 billion somoni for implementation of strategic projects aimed at providing energy independence, withdrawing the country from communication isolation and providing food security.
Besides, 145 million somoni are expected to be spent on resolving the drinking water shortage problems in 24 cities and districts across the country.
The meeting also heard a report by the Panjakent mayor on the process of implementation of the law on local authorities and a report by the Republican Archives chairperson on the process of implementation of the national archival science development concept designed for 2008-2018.
