MPs Criticize 2005 Draft Budget

On October 19 a session of the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budgetary Issues denounced a draft of the 2005 state budget as ?incomplete.? Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze also criticized the document on October 19 and said that without amendments the draft is doomed to be rejected by the Parliament. 

The parliamentarians say that the document is not transparent enough. ?The draft budget is so incomplete that we think that the government submitted the draft only to observe constitutional terms,? MP Roman Gotsiridze, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budget Issues, said on October 19.

MPs are also demanding that the government increase defense spending from the current 119 million Lari (USD 65 million) to 157 million (USD 85.7 million).

On October 1, the Cabinet submitted a draft of the 2005 budget to the Parliament. The government plans to increase expenditures by 7% in comparison with 2004. According to the 2005 draft budget expenditures will be raised up to 2.1 billion Lari (approximately USD 1.1 billion), while revenues are expected to reach 2.01 billion Lari (approximately USD 1 billion).
 
The government should must take the Parliament’s remarks into account by late October so that they can return a revised version of the draft to the Parliament for further consideration by November 1.

?We are ready to discuss the budget further with the Parliament, but we are not ready and we will not take into consideration the proposals of particular MPs, who are trying to lobby their private interests into the budget,? Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said on October 19.