Parliament approves amended Coronavirus budget

The Lower House of the Afghan parliament approved on Wednesday the extra budget for the Coronavirus crisis in the country.

The lawmakers, however, had rejected the budget but the government resent the draft to the House after bringing some minor changes in it.

The Finance and Budget Commission of the parliament says the national budget was 428 billion AFN, but the government has added another 21 billion AFN. 

“In the first amend draft 428.380 billion AFN included all the budget. But the budget raised to 449 billion AFN of which 30 billion is allocated to contain the coronavirus, “Abdul Rauf Anami, a member of the commission said.

Meanwhile, joint parliamentary commissions rejected the government’s amended draft to increase operative funds and transfer funds from many development projects to the Coronavirus budget.

“In areas where additional money was offered, we rejected it, for example, a 1.7 billion AFN for operational units, transferring three hundred and fifty million AFN to the provinces,” said Mir Afghan Safi, head of the Finance and Budget Commission. “It was difficult to monitor, and all the commissions have accepted the amendment of the parliament and it is an agreement.”

Finally, the House of Representatives put the budget document to fight the coronavirus on a vote by adding the amendments of the commissions of the House.

Mir Rahman Rahmani, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said: “The government’s proposed amendments to fight the coronavirus and the accidental amendments of the commissions are to be put on vote… It is approved with a majority of for votes and five against votes.”

However, members of the House of Representatives emphasize that they will closely monitor how the budget would be utilized to fight the coronavirus, as any corruption in this regard could lead to people’s death.