The National Council today unanimously adopted the Budget and Appropriation Bill 2019-20 along with the amendments and recommendations as proposed by the Economic Affairs Committee (EAC).
Presenting the recommendations on the Budget and Appropriation Bill 2019-20, the Deputy Chairperson of the EAC, MP Ugyen Tshering reported that with the directive of the House, the Committee along with seventeen members conducted an internal meeting on the recommendations.
He said that members had proposed twenty-two recommendations of which the Committee and the concerned members finalised six. The House with the show of hands adopted the six recommendations as proposed by the Committee.
Deliberating on Budget and Appropriation Bill yesterday, the members of the parliament proposed their recommendations and concerns with regard to the disbursement of budget appropriated under the different sector.
“Whenever we have discussions related to budget, we always notice there is not much investment in preserving our culture and tradition. We can only see money invested in renovating age-old traditional infrastructures. Less focus is given on preserving and promoting customs and tradition that Bhutanese are brought up with,” Bumthang MP Nima said.
“Likewise, law and order sector is also based more on development of infrastructures. We cannot see a separate budget for the sensitisation and awareness programs related to law and order,” Chhukha MP Sangay Dorji said.
“There is very less budget allocated for the promotion of the indigenous games and sports association. Only Nu 2.8 M will be provided to the association. We will have to provide more money to promote indigenous games and sports in the country,” Trashigang MP Lhatu said.
Other members of the parliament also expressed their observations and recommendations with regard to the budget allocated to health sectors, the education sector, renewable natural resources, road sector, communication sector and flagship programs.
As per the budget appropriation bill, the total budget for the FY 2019-20 is estimated at Nu. 64.83bn. Of the total budget, over Nu 34bn will be used for current expenditure and more than Nu 26bn for capital expenditure.
The Council yesterday passed the Supplementary Budget and Appropriation Bill for the financial year 2018-19 with 23 votes, yesterday. Supplementary Budget Appropriation Bill, which amounts to Nu. 1.6bn was submitted to the House for consideration.
