Borkena
A day after returning from a trip to South Korea where Abiy Ahmed’s administration signed a memorandum of Understanding to secure a $1billion in loan over four years of time to fund projects, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed presided over the 34th regular session of Council of Ministers. It approved a 1 trillion birr budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget decision is reportedly approved unanimously.
“The budget is prepared in consideration of the government’s financial capacity and evaluation of expected revenue as well as spendings ‘executive departments’ need to execute the mission and responsibility they are given,” said the statement from the Office of the Prime Minister which was shared to the public. It is also indicated that budgetary performance during this budget year was taken into consideration for the next fiscal year budget preparation.
The budget which the Council of Ministers described as “close to a trillion birr” will be allocated for operating budget, capital budget, transfers to regional states, development projects – among other expenses – , it was said. It is unclear why the Council of Ministers refrained from providing an exact figure of the budget. Details of the spendings including which development projects are getting what portion of the budget is undisclosed.
The Ethiopian Parliament will have to approve the budget. Usually, what is approved in the council of ministers is not challenged at all in the parliament except for a few opposition voices. Over 90 percent of the parliamentarians are from the ruling Prosperity Party.
This year’s budget is higher by about 200 billion birr compared to the proposed one for the next fiscal year. Last year’s budget was about 800 billion Ethiopian Birr.
There were reports that Ethiopia’s revenue from exports dwindled this year. The security situation in the country is said to have contributed to it. The Abiy Ahmed administration has been waging war in the Amhara region of Ethiopia for over a year now with a “stated” objective of disarming the Fano forces. However, the result was different. Fano forces proved powerful for the government and they are now more armed than they were a year ago. The extended state of emergency ended this week but the government has not declared the end of it. In the Oromia region, the government has been battling racial ethnic Oromo nationalist forces who call themselves – Oromo Liberation Army. They are said to have support from within the government structure.
Revenue from local sources was also reported to be decreasing due to the ongoing conflicts in several regions of the country.
