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After approval from the Mesharano Jirga, the upper house of the Afghan bicameral parliament, the budget for the fiscal year 1390 of Afghan year has been sent to the Wolasi Jirga, the lower house, for approval. The budget was read out in the parliament by the finance Minister, Omar Zakhilwal.
A total of 215.9 Billion Afghanis (currency) equivalent to 4.9 Billion USD is budgeted to be spent in the coming year. Though quite small a budget, its use and expenditure fully is still doubted even by the finance Minister himself, who foresees at least 30 Billion Afghanis not to be spent and therefore, added to the annual budget of 1391.
Security remains top priority, which gets the lion’s share with 57.6% of the budget allocated for improving the overall security situation of the country. This will bring in at least 42,000 more soldiers and 22,000 police. Whereas, health receives one of the lowest shares, education stands at the top second priority of the budget with 16.7% allocation. Though the amount for such a country with an estimated population of 32 million and less than 20% literate is small, yet it’s encouraging that it lies at the second top priority of a government that doesn’t have the capacity to shape its budget from its own resources.
The annual budget is supposed to be approved before the 21st of March when the new Afghan year 1390 starts. However, with the nature of the parliament that is still stuck in issues related to the legitimacy of at least 80 members, who could be ordered by the special court set up to look after issues related to fraud in the parliamentary elections to vacate and new elections be held any time, and have only recently made to elect a parliamentary speaker/chairman after more than a month of rigorous and troubling deliberations and at least four rounds of elections.
The parliament by no means stands ready to host such a considerate issue as the budget but the legal and constitutional requirement has to be fulfilled too. Eyes are now set on the parliament to give the government and ministry of finance tough time. However, as the results of the parliamentary speaker elections show, President Karzai still enjoys good enough support inside the parliament to get his bills and budgets passed relatively easily.
