Reviewing the State's Budget Amendments With Mp Ya.sodbaatar

The following is an interview with Member of Parliament Ya.Sodbaatar about issues related to the draft amendment to the state budget and the International Monetary Fund's extended fund facility program (IMF extended program).

Amendments to the 2017 state budget are the first issue up for discussion at the parliamentary spring session. The amendment is essential for the IMF extended program, but the public is displeased with initiatives to increase taxes through the amendment.

Have you seen the draft amendment?Since its formation, the government and Parliament have been taking progressive measures to correct the monetary policy, improve budgeting and budget discipline, and alleviate state debt burden. The majority of issues that have been discussed at regular and irregular sessions were related to the state budget and other financial problems.

For some time, Mongolia used to have several budgets. We used to have a hectic financial system, which included the Mongol Bank's Price Stabilizing Program, Development Bank's bonds, concessional loan funds, and the state budget.

Now, they've been merged into the state budget, which increases budget discipline and allows us to switch to saving mode. [The 2017 state budget] was probably the first budget to have such a low deficit.

MPs used to increase deficit amount in draft state budgets, submitted by the government, but now, it's different. We believe that the state budget is more reasonable and realistic now.

In the past four years, the 2016 state budget was the only one with a surplus of 500 billion MNT. At this rate, we might be able to exceed forecasted state revenue targets by the end of the year.

The government estimated that the state budget deficit would decrease to 10.3 percent in the draft amendment. I've noticed a few things in the draft amendment.

What did you notice?First of all, the government proposed to heighten tax through the draft amendment to the state budget in relation to the IMF's extended program. The second thing I noticed is that some items in the state budget will be made consistent with newly approved legislations.

For example, it was reflected in the draft amendment that the Development Bank would become consistent with international standards of independent banks and financial organizations since the Law on Development Bank has been approved. Within this framework, the Ministry of Finance has been put in charge of managing funds for several projects to be funded by the...