House Refers 786.6 Bln Birr Draft Budget Bill of 2015 Ethiopian Fiscal Year to Standing Committee

June 07, 2022 (ENA) The House of People’s Representatives (HPR) during its 11th session today referred the 786.6 billion Birr draft budget bill for the 2015 Ethiopian Fiscal year to the Plan, Budget and Finance Affairs Standing Committee.

Presenting the budget speech to the parliament, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said the economy, which has been benefiting from the Home Grown Economic reforms, has faced many challenges, including domestic conflict, the COVID-19, desert locust, drought and Russia-Ukraine conflict, but remained resilient.

The draft budget has 16.6 percent increment from last year’s regular and additional budgets combined.

Out of the total 786.6 billion Birr draft budget for the coming fiscal year, 345.1 billion Birr is allocated for recurrent spending, 218.1 billion Birr for capital expenditure, 209.4 billion Birr for subsidy to regions, and 14 billion Birr for implementation of sustainable development goals.

According to him, the draft budget bill focuses on debt payment, humanitarian assistance, rehabilitation and reconstruction, building capacity of security forces to protect security of the country, poverty reduction and development projects, subsidizing wheat and fertilizer, completing commenced projects, supporting displaced people and rehabilitate damaged infrastructures and services due to conflict and climate change.

Most of the budget is planned to be collected from domestic finance sources by expanding revenue sources, especially by enhancing the tax bases, it was learned.

The minister pointed out that the federal government is expected to collect 477.8 billion from domestic and external sources of finance, of which 92 percent to be collected from domestic sources  and 400 billion or 84 percent of it from taxes.

Necessary policy and structural measures will be implemented in an effort to reduce inflation to an average of 11.9 next year, Ahmed pointed out.

HPR Speaker, Tagesse Chafo on his part said extensive discussions will be held on the draft budget bill during the coming whole month and will be tabled for approval to HPR in June.