The total expenditure for the 2024-2025 financial year is estimated at almost Nu 90bn. Finance Minister Lekey Dorji presented the national budget for the next financial year at the National Assembly today. According to the national budget report, the budget aims to ensure that resources are strategically invested to achieve key performance areas identified in the 13th Five-Year Plan.
Of the total expenditure estimated for the next financial year, over Nu 50bn has been set aside for recurrent expenses. Recurrent expenses cover day-to-day operations and maintenance like salaries, utilities, and office supplies.
The remaining amount, almost Nu 40bn, will be used for capital expenditure such as building new infrastructure, purchasing equipment, and funding major projects.
However, the total resources available for the budget year are a little over Nu 73bn, leaving a resource gap of almost Nu 16bn. This means the government must look for other alternatives to close the fiscal deficit.
Direct taxes from corporations, businesses, individuals, and others are estimated to contribute over Nu 28bn to the total available resources.
Indirect taxes like sales tax, excise duty, green tax, and customs duty will contribute over Nu 11bn. Similarly, non-tax revenue will add over Nu 15bn, and over Nu 16bn is estimated to come from external grants.
According to the budget report, the revised gross domestic product (GDP) as of April 30th is Nu 270.4bn.
The report states that in the next financial year, the government aims to keep fiscal deficit within five per cent of GDP, maintain a tax-to-GDP ratio of at least 13 per cent, limit recurrent expenditure to within 90 per cent of internal resources, and keep government debt below 45 per cent of GDP.
While presenting the report to the National Assembly, the finance minister called for budgetary agencies to be prudent with resource utilisation.
Finance Minister Lekey Dorji said, “This is the highest fiscal budget in our history. That is why my plea to budgetary bodies is to monitor and audit all projects. If we utilise our limited budget as best as we can, every Bhutanese has the power to contribute to strengthening our country. If not, public debt will keep rising while public resources get wasted.”
The minister also added that some budgetary bodies do not consider donations and grants as part of public resources.
The total estimated budget for the financial year 2024-2025 is almost Nu 98bn. Apart from capital and current expenditure, which make up almost Nu 90bn of the total budget, over Nu 8bn will be used for loan repayments.
Sherub Dorji
