​​​​​The Ministry of Finance (MoF) said on Tuesday that AFs 63 billion out of AFs 124 billion of the development budget has been earmarked as the compulsory project budget for the next fiscal year.

The compulsory project budget for the current fiscal year was AFs 59 billion, while AFs 52 billion of the budget was part of the operational budget in the development sector, figures by the Finance Ministry show.
“We have decided on 124 billion Afghanis for 1398 (solar year) of which 61 billion Afghanis is the project budget and the remaining is the operational budget,” said Shamroz Khan Masjidi, spokesman for the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance has allocated AFs 399 billion for the 1398 fiscal year’s budget, 69 percent of which has been allocated for the standard budget while the remaining 39 percent has been allocated for the development budget.
According to the ministry, from the AFs 399 billion, AFs 275 billion will be allocated to the standard budget and the remaining will be put aside for the development budget.
The MoF figures show that 51 percent of the budget will be funded by foreign aid while 49 percent of it will be funded by national revenue.
An economic affairs analyst meanwhile said that the projects which are implemented using the project budget are not that effective and are not based on the people’s needs.
“Unfortunately, the projects which are implemented by using the project budget are not effective and they are not providing the people with what they want,” said Abdulqadir Jailani, a Kabul-based economic affairs analyst.
According to economic affairs experts, a project budget is often related to a one-time project, such as the hiring of temporary staff or for a special project, while an operational budget is a recurring set of funds provided to a department at the onset of each budget period, used to keep the department functioning, and is derived from the previous year’s spending and adjustments such as inflation and it is not designed to fund special projects.
This comes as the Ministry of Finance on Sunday tabled next year’s national budget to the Meshrano Jirga (the Upper House of Parliament) for approval.
Once approved by the senate, the budget will be tabled before the Wolesi Jirga (the Lower House of Parliament) for approval by MPs.
Figures by the Ministry of Finance show that a AFs 12 billion deficit has been predicted in the coming fiscal year’s budget but that the ministry will continue its efforts to make up the amount from national revenue or with the help of international aid.
The deficit means that government does not have any internal or external resources for financing three percent of its expenditure in the draft national budget.
Some MPs last week said the AFs 14 billion deficit of this year’s budget has been reduced to AFs 6 billion by lawmakers and for the next year’s budget they will try to solve this problem before approving the document.