Financial Affairs: Financial Commission Meeting No.1/2022 held

The Financial Commission Meeting No. 1/2022 was held at the SAC Chairman Office in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday with an address by Chairman of the Commission, Chairman of the State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

In his opening remarks, the the Senior General said that the Union level organizations must draw up the budget for the financial year 2022-2023 based on the five-point roadmap and the nine objectives of the State Administration Coun­cil following the policy and di­rectives.

He stressed the need to make efforts to get the planned revenue as planned and to prior­itize expenditures only to support the urgent economic recovery of the country, despite the obsta­cles and challenges for econom­ic growth due to COVID-19 and political events.

This is the time to strive for revitalizing the country's economy and that's why, the government’s spending must be able to support manu­facturing, trading and services which are the key to economic development.

He added that the government will con­tinue to increase budgets for education, health, sports and social protection for the human resource development of the nation. As the COVID-19 epidemic has pandemic has not completely eradicated, the expenses of health care services including vaccines need to be continued to spend.

The Senior General called on the Regions and states to give priority to the expenditures of roads, bridges, water and electricity that can directly benefit the people and regional development rather than administrative expense.

According to the index of the nation's macro economy, it is necessary to maintain the estimated budget deficit and the GDP ratio with a reasonable range. Only then the burden of local and foreign debts will be able to prevent in advance. 

Later, Vice Chairman of the Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Vice Senior General Soe Win said that in terms of revenue, revenue may be reduced due to the economic impacts effected by COVID-19 and political consequences but it is being scrutinized based on the actual availability.

In terms of expenditures, according to the Government Priority Plan included in the COVID-19 Eco­nomic Relief Plan (CERP), pri­ority was given to activities that would have immediate benefits, a multi-faceted impact, essen­tial infrastructure and human resource development activities.

In the 2022-2023 financial year (FY), as in the previous year, K100 billion for the central government and 15 billion Kyats for regions/states including Nay Pyi Taw Council have been allocated for emergency funding for unpre­dictable natural disaster preven­tion and relief and rehabilitation, he said.

In addition, as in the previous year, a total of 135 bil­lion kyats has been earmarked for the external national disaster man­agement fund with 20 billion kyats.

Secretary of the Commission, Union Minister for Planning and Finance U Win Shein reported on the 2022-2023 Financial Year Union Budget and the Union Budget Bill and 2022 Union Tax Bill. Union Auditor General Dr. Kan Zaw discussed the facts that should be done in the future.

In his conclusion, the Senior General urged all regions and states to abide by the rules and regulations in spending the fund, to systematically work to be able to audit all expenditures, to put the interest of the State and the people first and to implement their budgets effectively with good public financial manage­ment skills.