Discussion of amendments to 18-billion budget is completed - draft will be approved in one reading

Discussions on the amendments to the 2020 budget have been completed in the Parliament. Giorgi Kakauridze, the Deputy Minister of Finance, has presented the draft amendments to the National Movement faction today.

The opposition assessed the anti-crisis budget as alarming and submitted to the government its own alternative plan for overcoming the economic crisis in the country. In addition, they asked the Minister of Finance questions regarding certain budget expenditures that were left unchanged.

Salome Samadashvili says that this draft budget is completely out of line with reality and is driving the population of the country into despair. According to her, the proposal of the "National Movement", which provided 1000 GEL for adult citizens and 500 GEL for children, would fit perfectly into the proposed budget parameters.

Our proposal was simple, without any additional bureaucratic obstacles in order to allow people to get one-time assistance and then use the funds on their own, - says Salome Samadashvili.

The opposition believes that the anti-crisis budget to be approved next week is not tailored for the needs of people because it does not include aid packages.

The opposition also spoke about the Covid Fund, where over 100 million GEL was accumulated. They wondered why this money was not spent on social packages for the population. A representative of the Ministry of Finance said that the money accumulated in the Fund has been saved in the budget and would be spent only in case of emergency, such as the beginning of the second wave of the virus, which is expected in autumn.

The Deputy Finance Minister also spoke of a decline in foreign direct investment, and although investment was already declining in the first quarter of 2020, he linked the decline entirely to the global Coronavirus pandemic.

This year, unfortunately, there will be a reduction and significant reduction in foreign direct investment. There is uncertainty in today's world. We must do everything possible to maximize our capital expenditures, which we have left in the budget, so that the role of public investments will still be leading, and this will give an impetus to the private sector, - said Deputy Finance Minister Giorgi Kakauriidze.

He stated that the opposition's initiative could not be taken into account due to lack of funds in the budget, and that further cuts in budget expenditures were not possible.

We would like to remind you that the adjusted budget provides for a 4%  reduction in the country's economy and an 8.5-per-cent budget deficit. The revenue part of the budget will be reduced by 1.8 billion GEL, while the current and capital expenses will be reduced by 600 million GEL. The budget is to be adopted in one reading next week.