Tajik lawmakers have endorsed a draft law on the country’s budget for 2017.
Tajik Finance Minister Abdusalom Qurboniyon said the national budget for 2017 would stand at 19.568 billion somoni, 1.8 billion somoni more than the country’s budget for this year.
A regular sitting of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament, presided over by its head, Shukurjon Zuhurov, was held on November 16.
Presenting the bill to lawmakers, Qurboniyon noted that the expenditure part of the budget would stand at 19.863 billion somooni.
Qurboniyon said revenues are projected to be more than 14.7 billion somoni.
He said national budget indicators reflect the economic and social development of the country. Social spending will account for more than 40 percent budget allocations, with 3.5 billion somoni earmarked for public education alone.
The budget projects expenditure of more than 1.4 billion somoni in the health sector and 822 million somoni in the cultural sector.
In 2017, more than 3.2 billion somoni is expected to be spent on social protection and social insurance.
The budget earmarks more than 3.3 billion somoni for energy sector, 583 million somoni for agriculture, hunting and fish farming, and 702 million somoni for environmental protection, forestry and housing and communal services.
The budget projects expenditure of 137 million somoni in the construction and industrial sectors and nearly 1.4 billion somoni in the transport and infrastructure sector.
The budget for investment projects being implemented in cooperation with international financial institutions is projected to amount to about 3.5 billion somoni.
Expenditures on public management personnel and government agencies are projected to stand at more than 1.1 billion somoni.
Other expenditures are reportedly projected to stand at about 2 billion somoni.
The 2017 budget deficit is projected to amount to 0.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“GDP growth is projected to rise next year to 58.9 billion somoni, while the inflation rate is expected to be 7.0 percent,” the minister said.
The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Tajik national currency, the somoni, is expected to be 1:9.16.
