The finance minister presented the budget appropriation bill for the financial year 2018-2019 in the National Assembly today. The budget appropriated for the current financial year is Nu 47.698bn.
Lyonpo Namgay Tshering said the current budget appropriation includes a budget of over Nu 36bn passed by the 11th session of the Second Parliament and a capital budget of over Nu 11bn allocated for January to June, 2019.
Of the total budget allocated for the current financial year, Nu 29.1bn will be used to meet current expenditure, while Nu 16bn will go into capital expenditure. The remaining will be used for lending and repayment.
At 49 per cent of the total capital budget share, ministries will receive the major chunk of the budget.
The Local Government will receive about 26 per cent of the total capital budget allocation, followed by autonomous agencies, constitutional bodies, and the judiciary.
The finance minister also informed the house that domestic revenue during the current financial year is estimated to be close to Nu 34bn of which over Nu 25bn is tax revenue.
Close to Nu 6bn is expected in external grants to assist the current financial year with the Government of India alone providing over Nu 3bn.
Overall, the budget appropriation of Nu 47.698bn for the financial year 2018-2019 accounts for about 15.5 per cent of the 12th Five Year Plan’s total outlay.
The budget appropriation bill will be deliberated next Friday for endorsement.
