The Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley’s government has released the annual budget of Nu 34.5 billion for the fiscal year 2012-13 during the budget session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Finance Minister Wangdi Norbu presented the annual budget, which is Nu 4.4 billion below the previous year’s budget. The budget for the last fiscal year was Nu 37.9 billion.
According to Minister Norbu, this is final budget of the 10th five year plan.
The new budget shows that government’s current expenditure shot up to Nu 18.3b, which is a lift by Nu 1b from the last year. Of this, some 43 % has been planned to meet wages and salaries of civil servants and other government officials.
It has been proposed that the remaining budget of Nu 16.3b would be sufficient to meet capital expenditures.
Annual budget allocation for ministries included the highest amount of Nu 10.4b for the Ministry of Finance while the ministry at bottom-line to satisfy with Nu 436 million is the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources.
The Finance Minister also announced that “no funds have been allocated to buy vehicles, build staff quarters, fencing, compound wall and gates, and annual conferences”.
The government also estimated that the total revenue in the fiscal year would go up by 13.66 percent, standing enough to meet current expenditure.
