First discussion of bill on budget amendments runs www.en.montsame.mn
Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Today, the Parliament started to discuss bill on 2017 budget amendments. Finance Minister B.Choijilsuren made an introduction on the bill, noting that the draft had been developed within the framework of International Monetary Fund's Extended Fund Facility program, making resolute changes.
To implement the IMF program, the Mongolian government has agreed to make three arrangements, including the budget adjustment to increase some tax rates and reduce budget expenditure. The IMF will provide USD440 million and other international partners - USD3 billion.
In response to questions Finance Minister said “USD400 million from the IMF will be spent for increasing reserve of the Bank of Mongolia. The rest will be allocated for removing budget deficit during 2017-2019. The number of public officers was around 142 thousand in 2012, which later grew to 180 thousand. But it is not proper to cut the number, making many people jobless. Therefore, we agreed with the IMF not to hire new employees in state and public services in the position of retired ones. Only some services, including medical, educational and emergency can take on one new employee in place of two retired employees”.
MP S.Erdene expressed position of democratic party group the in the parliament that a large amount of loan should not be lent from the IMF and tax rates should not be raised, reminding the Mongolian People's Party members about the party’s promise to raise pensions and salaries and not to increase tax rates.
Some MPs also expressed their positions against raising the retirement age, saying that the retirement age should be voluntarily chosen. Minister B.Choijilsuren explained “- Raising retirement age and social insurance contribution rate have become inevitable. Pension fund needs subsidies of MNT587.3 billion this year and it will grow to MNT2.3 trillion further. Therefore policy change must be made as the fund has so much deficit”.
Published Date:2017-04-06