MPs to Debate President's Office $750m Budget

The proposed US $750 million budget of the President's Office for the 2012-2013 fiscal year will be discussed at the Union Parliament next week amid criticism of planned expenses in all sectors of governance.

The agenda includes the budget plan for President's Office expenses for the next fiscal year along with the budget separation among government ministries and expenses for Union level government and State/Division level governments.

The proposed budget of the President's Office has been highlighted by Members of Parliament as it has “requested 611.05 billion kyat ($750 million) for special development funding,” while the office does not have to spend on infrastructure apart from administration, said Dr Aye Maung, a respected member of the Upper House of Parliament who represents Burma’s Arakanese ethnic minority.

Thein Nyunt, a member of the Lower House of Parliament, said MPs will discuss the matter in detail and systematically plan the budget as the office spent billions of kyat last year. This includes the controversial implementation of a Myanmar Industrial Development Committee project under the Ministry of Industry, which he claims does not abide by the 2008 Constitution.

“If [the President's Office budget] does not abide by the law, we will have to object,” added Thein Nyunt.

Moreover, the imbalanced budget separation between the Union and State/Division levels of government is also a hot topic amongst MPs. Currently 94 percent of the planned fiscal year budget is estimated for the former and just six percent for the latter.

MP Aye Maung said, “The budget estimation should be 75 percent for Union level government and 25 or 20 percent for State/Division level government in order to be balanced.”

In next week's meeting of Parliament, discussions will also focus on the budget reduction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation as well as a proposed increase in funding for the Ministry of Electric Power-2.

MPs claim there are unnecessary national projects such as building sport stadiums and infrastructures for technology colleges within the President's Office budget plan.

In this third session of the Burmese Parliament which began last month, the current annual additional budget and the national project budget are also being discussed. The government recently declared that Burma has a national debt of around $12 billion.