Despite fierce debate on the National Budget among members of the National Assembly, the house endorsed it with an absolute majority with only one member voting to abstain. The major focus of the discussion was on external debt management where the ruling and the opposition accused each other on managing public debt.
Even as the speaker reminded the house to stick to the proposed deliberation and not discuss any further on public debt, the discussion on the subject lasted one whole day and spilled over to next.
Bartsham-Shongphu National Assembly member Wangdi Norbu who abstained the vote said, he had not agreed on the government’s allegation that the previous government had borrowed beyond limit.
He added, even when it came to non-hydro loans, they were of a nature similar to hydropower, which is self-liquidating.
Total government borrowings as of May this year stood at Nu 111 billion and non-hydropower debt was at Nu 77B according to figures available with central bank.
