KABUL (SW) – A document obtained by Salam Watandar indicates the Ministry of Finance has called for saving measures amid budget shortfall.
The letter, signed by Mohammad Khalid Payenda, head of the Ministry of Finance, and sent to the general directorates of the treasury and the budget of all public departments, states that all budget units should ensure saving in line with a contingency plan.
According to the letter, rising spending in the country’s security and health sectors, as well as declining domestic revenues and international aid, have led to the deficit.
The letter states that in order to timely implement the salaries of civil and military personnel and other necessary expenses of the agencies and to prevent the increase of the budget deficit, all budget units must save on normal and optional budget expenditures.
It has specifically underlined savings in regard to the non-employment of new part-time and temporary (NTA) contract employees, non-implementation of overtime pay for those employees who benefit from super-scale privileged salaries, coefficient salaries and other similar salaries and privileges (also for central and provincial salary controllers).
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It also stated the overtime is not payable due to the privileged salary besides declaring non-payment of unnecessary domestic and foreign trips (in special cases the written consent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required), non-payment for advertising, publication of calendars, magazines and other cases as well as unnecessary, non-implementation of academic expenses of domestic universities as well as unnecessary expenses for launching seminars and workshops, non-implementation of rewards, aids, donations and purchases of furniture and vehicles are some of the things that budget units are required to regulate in terms of spedings.
Confirming issuance of the letter, the Ministry of Finance officials said that recent security incidents, the coronavirus and drought have had a negative impact on the revenue collection process, while rising security spending has prompted the government to make sweeping changes to the proposed mid-year budget.
Rafi Tabe, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, stated that budget units have been asked to comply with the principle of austerity, however, all basic government services in the areas of health, education, distribution of identity cards and passports, salaries of civil servants and other basic services will continue as usual.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, in a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Finance on Friday, discussed reforms in spending, revision and due diligence on budget spending and preparation for the mid-year and next year budgets.
According to the Presidency, the President stressed at the meeting that ministries should build the necessary capacity and transparency in contracts and various sectors in order to make effective use of the $ 4 billion assistance from the international community.
The annual budget for the 2021-22 was set at more than 473 billion afghani, which included 311 billion afghani for expenditure and 161 billion afghani for development.
The budget deficit is forecast to be of $ 37 afghani this year, which would be funded through the government reserves and the International Monetary Fund.
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